Solar Is Part of American Energy Dominance, SEIA Tells Lawmakers

As politicians in the United States use “American energy dominance” as a rallying cry, solar power advocates are touting the role the country’s solar industry can play.

More than 160 executives from solar energy companies convened on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, February 5, 2025 with pins bearing that very message — “American Energy Dominance” — alongside an image of the Sun shining on a solar panel, per The Washington Post.

As reported in a press release from the national trade group Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) — of which Altus Power is a member — a coalition of energy groups and their member companies are holding more than 100 meetings with members of Congress and staff from the Democratic and Republican parties to discuss “the critical role of clean energy tax credits for supporting a robust American energy and manufacturing economy.”

That coalition represents more than 2,000 companies and hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment, according to the SEIA. Additionally, more than 1,850 clean energy companies are sending letters to Congress to champion clean energy tax credits, the association added.

Other groups joining the SEIA in the push include the National Hydropower Association, Oceantic Network, Climate Power, U.S. Green Building Council, Clean Energy for America, E2, Business Council for Sustainable Energy, and Impact Capital Managers.

SEIA President and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper stated in the release that solar can be built more quickly and more inexpensively than almost any other technology — and that, with the right support, solar can help meet the United States’ energy challenges.

“With support from federal clean energy policies, American solar manufacturers can now produce enough modules to meet all demand for solar in the United States,” Hopper said. “It’s critical that our elected leaders understand the impact of these policies and the jobs and investments they bring to their constituents.”

Bob Keefe, executive director of the national nonpartisan business group E2, added: “Businesses across America right now are just breaking ground or finalizing plans for hundreds of factories and projects that will manufacture the solar panels, batteries, and other Made-in-America equipment and deploy the energy we need to meet the exploding demand for electricity across the economy. … Now’s the time for Congress to keep the investments and opportunities flowing to the folks back home, while also making America competitive again in the global marketplace.”

Indeed, the coalition is emphasizing the number of clean-energy jobs at stake in the United States. In December 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that solar panel manufacturer Qcells is planning to build a large factory in Georgia, thanks to a $1.45 billion loan guarantee from the DOE. “By the time we’re done, we will be employing about 4,000 people in Georgia, and those are good-paying American manufacturing jobs,” Qcells spokeswoman Debra DeShong told the newspaper.

In a letter to Congress on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, SEIA said the U.S. solar industry supports more than 280,000 jobs, with workers in almost every state.

Before federal incentives supporting the solar industry, the United States was the seventh-largest solar module producer in the world, the SEIA’s letter pointed out. Now, after 500% rise in solar module manufacturing capacity, the U.S. ranks third in the world.

In a separate letter to congressional leaders — signed by groups and associations representing more than 14,000 companies and businesses representing more than 75,000 workers — SEIA urged lawmakers to uphold federal clean energy and vehicle tax policies, as Axios reported.

The signees of that letter reported that more than 45 new battery manufacturing plants, 50 solar panel factories, and 160 EV-related facilities have been announced since the enactment of those incentives — and that the United States “risks losing $66 billion in new investments and $50 billion in exports to international competitors” without them.

“Federal energy tax credits are doing exactly what they were designed to do — creating jobs, strengthening our domestic supply chain, and bolstering U.S. energy security,” Andrew Reagan, president of Clean Energy for America, said in the SEIA press release. “These investments are delivering affordable, reliable power while creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in communities across the country. Our energy future relies on preserving policy certainty to ensure Americans have access to affordable, reliable energy while creating good-paying jobs that strengthen our economy.”