The Iran war sparked a shift toward clean energy. Will it last?

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America’s war with Iran is maybe, possibly, headed for resolution, but its impact on the global energy sector isn’t fading anytime soon.

The U.S. and Iran signed a deal on Wednesday to end their three-month conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil and gas shipping lane. It’s still unclear what the agreement exactly entails, or whether it’ll even hold up, but fossil fuel markets are taking it as a good omen. Global oil prices have already fallen to their lowest level in months, and gasoline prices across the U.S. are starting to sink. Still, experts say it could take up to a year for oil and gas prices to stabilize, especially given that Middle Eastern fossil fuel infrastructure was damaged during the war.

Amid these past few months of uncertainty, much of the world turned to a common solution: clean energy. People swapped gas cars for EVs, turned to electric appliances for cooking, and took other big — and potentially permanent — steps away from costly and volatile fossil fuels.

When 2026 started, the EV market wasn’t in a great place. The end of federal tax credits had tanked the U.S. market, and global sales were sluggish, too. But with skyrocketing fossil fuel prices came a renewed interest: New EV sales rose through April and May around the world, and BloombergNEF anticipates sales will climb even further throughout 2026.

Outside of higher prices at the gas pump, the U.S. hasn’t felt much of an impact from the energy shock. But in Europe and Asia, people are grappling with higher fuel costs for cooking, heating, and power generation, and have turned to clean solutions in response.

Instead of following President Donald Trump’s call to buy more U.S. fossil fuels, European Union leaders called for a bloc-wide shift to renewables. In Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands, tons of households installed rooftop solar arrays to avoid high electricity prices. In India, a cooking gas shortage led residents toward induction stoves. The Philippines similarly saw a surge in rooftop solar installs, and a new International Energy Agency report suggests the country and its neighbors across Southeast Asia will keep the clean investments coming given the region’s reliance on Middle Eastern oil and gas imports.

Time will tell if the war and its fallout prove to be an inflection point for the clean energy transition, but analysts with think tank Ember argue it’s certainly a possibility. After all, the oil crises of the 1970s pushed the world to look beyond the Middle East for fossil fuel supplies, and to pursue more efficient uses of oil and gas. The same thing could happen this time around — only with cleaner, cheaper, and more secure energy as the alternative.

Clean energy news to know this week

Hot spring: Clean energy had a record-breaking spring in the U.S., with solar generation beating out coal for the first time in May, among other wins for solar, wind, and battery storage throughout the season. (Canary Media)

Clean energy’s next hurdle: Most wind and solar projects under construction in the U.S. have secured ​“safe harbor” status, meeting the July 4 deadline to tap federal incentives, but now developers must race to complete those projects in four years. (Canary Media)

Courts deliver on climate: Clean energy groups and states continue to fight the federal government’s multipronged blockade on wind and solar development, scoring victories as the Trump administration abandons one anti-wind fight and is ordered to release millions of dollars in climate grants revoked from states that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. (E&E News, Utility Dive, New York Times)

Transmission disconnect: The New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line was supposed to bring tons of clean hydropower from Canada into the Northeast U.S., but energy imports have increased only a tiny bit since the line began running in January. (Canary Media)

Solar funding unplugged: The DOE has redirected tens of millions of dollars that the Biden administration allocated to Puerto Rico for a resilient network of solar panels and batteries toward building a gas pipeline and other fossil fuel infrastructure. (Grist)

Double-edged grid upgrades: Making much-needed upgrades to the U.S. grid could result in a $1 billion payout to American utility executives, as publicly traded utilities’ stock valuations are directly tied to their spending. (Reuters)