Utility-scale Solar: The Grim News Begins (Blue Ridge “wind-down’)
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 9, 2025“… this was one of the hottest and most promising job sectors in the country at the end of 2024. Now, clean energy job growth is at serious risk – and with it, our overall economy.” (-Bob Keefe, below)
“Solar construction firm Blue Ridge Power issues mass worker layoff in North Carolina,” read the article in pv magazine. “The utility-scale solar engineering, procurement and construction firm filed a WARN act with the state, cutting over 500 jobs.”
Much of the rooftop solar industry is in liquidation mode, and now the central station “utility scale” solar industry is in trouble. Expect more of the same in the next months as solar subsidies and local opposition (the environmental grassroots) grows. The delayed end of the Investment Tax Credit (30 percent credit) and the Production Tax Credit (2.8 cents/kWh) will cause a rush to the exits before the credits expire at the end of 2027 (with credits at risk for projects not started by July 4, 2026).…
Continue ReadingFederal EV Credit Out, Leaving Blue State Subsidies
By Kennedy Maize -- October 8, 2025“A few states are bucking the national trend to prop up, temporarily, EV production. Domestic output is falling, which leaves foreign EV makers. The states do not have the federal “buy American” limit that applies to the batteries and internals of qualified EVs, however, which means that Japan’s Toyota bZ4x and Belgium’s Volvo’s EX30 could be the subsidized winners in an overall declining market.”
Biden administration $7,500 tax subsidy for purchasing electric vehicles, which helped propel a boom in battery electric vehicles (EVs), expired effective October 1st pursuant to the Big Beautiful Bill. Trump has long professed a distaste for this automotive technology, except for his EV photo-op in July when he turned the White House south lawn into a new car lot for Tesla cars to promote Elon and DOGE.…
Continue ReadingSolar, Wind ESG/ETC Closures Accelerate
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 7, 2025“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” ( – Milton Friedman, 1975)
The “socially responsible” investing bubble–a combination of government subsidies and political correctness–is leaking air. Yesterday’s post reported the demise of the Net Zero Banking Alliance. Now the wind and solar Exchange Traded Fund [ETF] is in freefall. As Eric Balchunas, Senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, recently reported:
Solar, Wind ETF Closures Show Just How Much the Climate Has Changed. 5 ESG ETF closures in Aug, now 21 for year, 74 total… with 50 more in danger bc under the $50m mark. Basically when all is said and done about half of all ESG ETFs launched will likely be shuttered
One wealth analyst commented: “It seems to be a category started with good intent (ESG/Impact) but was quickly hijacked by politicians for their own causes and that dilutes any initial good intent.”…
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