Chart: How does the US race to onshore clean energy stack up globally?

Canary Media thanks KORE Power for its support of our special series on clean energy manufacturing.

Canary’s chart of the week translates crucial data about the clean energy transition into a visual format.

The Biden administration is on a mission to bring manufacturing back to the United States — and clean energy is at the core of it.

The Inflation Reduction Act, passed last August, directly incentivizes the onshoring of supply chains and manufacturing for clean energy technologies. And just nine months after the law passed, it seems to be achieving that goal: Nearly 100 new solar, wind, battery and EV facilities have been announced in that span of time.

But even with this surge of new activity, the United States still has a long way to go when it comes to global clean energy manufacturing, which remains heavily concentrated in China.

As of 2023, nearly 80 percent of the world’s solar panels and batteries are made in China, as well as more than 60 percent of the world’s wind turbines, according to the International Energy Agency. And while the country’s leadership is to thank for much of the remarkable reduction in the price of clean energy technologies over the past decade, U.S. politicians have grown increasingly uncomfortable with it as tensions with China have mounted and clean energy has become more and more crucial to national security.

Looking ahead, the massive new investments in U.S. cleantech manufacturing will move the needle a bit on this country’s share of global solar production and help it tread water with wind manufacturing. Batteries, on the other hand, are where the U.S. is making a bigger dent. The U.S. manufacturing announcements made since the IRA passed account for nearly half of the global pipeline for battery manufacturing through 2030. That will make the U.S. home to 15 percent of global battery production, more than double what it is today.

And the U.S. is not alone in its industrial pursuit. As demand for clean energy soars globally, a growing number of countries are also looking to capitalize on the investment and jobs that can come from producing clean energy components at home. The European Union, Canada, India, Japan and China are among others merging energy security, climate goals and industrial policy to incentivize clean energy manufacturing and deployment.

But despite the widespread efforts to ramp up clean energy manufacturing, China’s share of the solar and wind supply chains is not expected to drop through 2030. As for batteries, IEA projects a slight reduction over that time, but the country is still expected to control more than two-thirds of global supply. After all, it’s not like China suddenly has stopped building: It accounts for most of the planned manufacturing capacity expansion plans through 2030 for solar PV and onshore wind.

So even though manufacturing capacity is indeed expanding geographically, powered in part by the U.S. clean energy manufacturing boom, China’s leading spot in clean energy manufacturing is unlikely to be challenged in this decade.

Headquartered in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho with clients on every continent, KORE Power provides functional solutions to meet the growing demand for green economic expansion and a decarbonized future. As a fully integrated provider of battery cells and clean energy technology and solutions, KORE drives the energy transition through direct access to superior tech, clean energy manufacturing, and unmatched support for clean energy jobs and resilient, sustainable communities worldwide. KORE Power’s robust portfolio provides the commercial, industrial, utility and defense markets with next-generation battery cells, advanced energy storage systems that scale to grid+, intuitive asset management, and EV power and charging infrastructure support.