☀️ Despite political headwinds: American investments in carbon-free energy set record in 2025

• Investments in carbon-free energy and transportation reached $75 billion in the third quarter of 2025, the highest quarterly figure ever.
• The full year 2025 is expected to exceed last year's total investment of $267 billion.
• Wind power investments rose 31 percent and reached the highest level since 2020.

New record level for clean investments

During the third quarter of 2025, a total of $75 billion was invested in clean energy and transportation in the US. This is shown in the latest report from the Clean Investment Monitor, a collaboration between Rhodium Group and MIT's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. The sum exceeds the previous record of $70 billion from the third quarter of 2024.

The increase corresponds to 9 percent compared to the previous quarter and 8 percent compared to the same period last year. Clean investments accounted for 5.3 percent of total US private investment in structures, equipment, and durable consumer goods. This is the highest share ever recorded.

Electric vehicles drive growth

Consumer purchases of electric vehicles, heat pumps, distributed energy generation, and storage amounted to $41 billion. This corresponds to 54 percent of total investments. The segment increased by 19 percent compared to the previous quarter and 17 percent compared to the third quarter of 2024.

Investments in zero-emission vehicles reached $31 billion. This is an increase of 32 percent from the previous quarter and 30 percent from the same period last year. Electric vehicles accounted for 76 percent of all purchases in the retail segment.

Wind power on the rise

Investments in utility-scale clean electricity and industrial decarbonization amounted to $25 billion. This is the highest quarterly level ever for this segment. The increase was 3 percent compared to the previous quarter and 15 percent compared to the third quarter of 2024.

Wind power investments increased for the fifth consecutive quarter. The increase was 31 percent compared to the previous quarter and reached $7 billion. This is the highest quarterly level since 2020. Solar and storage installations accounted for $17 billion of clean electricity investments.

57 facilities in operation

Since 2018, companies have invested $15 billion in building and installing new industrial decarbonization facilities. A total of 57 projects have started operating across the US. The technologies include hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel, carbon management, and new methods for reducing emissions from cement, steel, and pulp production.

An additional 229 projects are in the pipeline and have either not broken ground or are under construction. These represent $136 billion in outstanding investments.

Solar manufacturing increases

Investments in solar cell manufacturing amounted to approximately $2 billion during the third quarter of 2025. This is an increase of 34 percent from the previous quarter and 6 percent compared to the same period last year.

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