Yes, energy transition technologies saw growth last year, but if it didn’t feel that way, it’s probably because spending has declined steeply from the heady Inflation Reduction Act era of just a few years ago.
That’s according to figures from the newly released 2026 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook, a publication of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) and BloombergNEF.
US energy transition spending inched up 3.5% in 2025, a far cry from the 30% of 2023.
Overall clean energy spending remained flat, and renewable energy actually declined 2.9% due to policy setbacks, including permit cancellations, according to the annual report.
Where is money being spent? On grids and electric transportation.
Grid investment reached $115 billion, a 9.5% increase over the previous year. Electric vehicles and charging also reached record highs, although the report attributes this to an anomaly caused by a rush by consumers to claim federal tax credits before they expired.
China significantly outpaced the US, allocating 4.1% of GDP to the energy transition, compared with 1.2% in the US.
But batteries were a winning story for the US in 2025. The US saw 56% growth in its lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity.
Meanwhile, debt financing for the energy transition grew 15% year on year in the US to $295 billion in 2025, largely driven by utilities with large grids, like Dominion Energy, Constellation Energy and Duke Energy.
The share of financing explicitly earmarked for green purposes or linked to a sustainability target fell from 31% in 2024 to 26%. The report blamed fading pricing benefits from labeled instruments and persistent anti-environmental, social and governance (ESG) sentiment.
Here’s a hint of what may be to come.
Despite a downturn elsewhere, green energy saw increased spending from corporations last year, with AI companies responsible for much of the buying. Tech giants, including Meta, Amazon, Google and Microsoft, accounted for 76% of the overall corporate deal activity.
The factbook is available here for download.
