CHARLOTTE — Siemens Energy, Scout Motors, Atom Power, Albemarle, Toyota and Silfab Solar are just a handful of the companies that have announced nearly $35 billion in investments in the Carolinas in the two years since President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act.
The law, which Biden claimed would reshore American manufacturing and provide a path forward to a greener economy, has led to a boom in EV, battery and solar factories in the southeast. Just five states are home to dozens of announced projects, and that includes both North Carolina and South Carolina.
According to E2, a business advocacy organization that tracks clean manufacturing investments, in the two years since the IRA was signed, 22 projects have announced plans to open in North Carolina creating 10,571 jobs. In South Carolina, that’s 27 projects and an anticipated 13,925 jobs.
Jennifer Mundt, the assistant secretary of clean energy at the North Carolina Department of Commerce, believes it comes down to a favorable business environment with the education system, land availability, and growing workforce in the Carolinas.
“We have seen this inordinate amount of investment in the southeast, and particularly in North Carolina, because there’s been so much pent-up demand to act on it,” she said.
Many of these businesses are taking advantage of federal tax credits like the Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit and the Advanced Energy Production Credit as well as hoping for increased demand due to consumer-facing tax credits for electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels.
Mundt believes North Carolina’s climate goals and local incentives made the state even more attractive to these clean energy projects. Once a big manufacturer puts down roots in an area, she said there tends to be a snowball effect. She points to the upcoming Toyota battery factory in Randolph County as an example.
“Around that comes all of the supply chain partners,” she said. “We have Albemarle mining. They won $150 million from the Department of Energy to build out lithium processing plant in Kings Mountain. We have Forge Nano that is going to be building a gigafactory for lithium-ion batteries here in Morrisville and Wake County. Epsilon, they’re going to be manufacturing synthetic graphite for batteries.”
Despite the promise of jobs and a renewed emphasis on American manufacturing, not all of these proposed projects have been met with open arms.
Silfab Solar’s efforts to build a solar panel manufacturing facility in Fort Mill have seen fierce opposition from neighbors and community members concerned the first-of-its-kind operation in their community could pose a threat to two new schools being built on the property directly next door.
Additionally, a boom in clean energy and EV manufacturing does not necessarily translate to increased interest in these products in the region. Despite its outsized role in the EV manufacturing sector, South Carolina lags behind many of its neighbors in EV adoption.
Future politics and policies
E2 reports across the country there’s been a slight slowdown in project announcements. Between August 2022 and August 2023, there were 216 announced projects. From August 2023 to 2024, there were 118. Bob Keefe, the group’s president, believes this change is partly due to uncertainty surrounding the future of the IRA as we approach the 2024 election.
Republican House members have voted more than 42 times to repeal parts of the IRA and should they win both houses and the presidency, Donald Trump has signaled support for repealing parts of the act, due to concerns about government spending and favoring clean energy projects over other types of manufacturing.
Lucas Olinyk, president of Harvest Solar in Jackson, Michigan, said he wasn’t particularly concerned about the investments his company has already made.
“I think it’s such a low risk either way on clawbacks,” he said. “And it’s just, it’s a very complex thing, too ... the stars would have to align so perfectly for it to lose things.”
Charlotte City Councilmember Dimple Ajmera isn’t so sure. She believes efforts from republican lawmakers so far show at least future projects or further climate legislation could be at risk. She also pointed to other parts of the bill such as measures to cap the cost of insulin and other prescription drugs as proof the bill has had a broad effect on the middle class.
“The Inflation Reduction Act helps save on cost,” she said. “It lowers prescription drug cost, it helps create good-paying jobs, and it tackles carbon pollution.”
(VIDEO: County council members receive death threats over controversial solar panel plant)
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