In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law, unleashing a wave of optimism across the renewable energy sector. As someone who has spent over a decade in utility-scale development — working on more than a gigawatt of solar and hundreds of megawatts of battery energy storage projects — I saw firsthand how the IRA reshaped boardroom conversations, procurement strategies and financial modeling. For the first time, standalone storage had a stable federal foothold, and that unlocked momentum like we had never seen.

But now, with growing uncertainty about the IRA’s future amid political shifts, a sobering question looms over our industry: Can energy storage continue its pivotal role in decarbonizing the grid without federal support?

In my view — and based on what I see on the ground, in permitting meetings, and in request for proposal negotiations — the answer is unequivocally yes.

Read more in Utility Dive here.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.