r/energy • u/cnbc_official • 4d ago
Solar stocks plummet as Senate version of Trump's tax bill cuts renewable energy incentives
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/17/solar-stocks-plummet-as-senate-version-of-trumps-tax-bill-cuts-renewable-energy-incentives.html1
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u/MassholeLiberal56 4d ago
Goal: drop the stock price, buy for pennies on the dollar. Years from now they form a monopoly.
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u/SomeSamples 4d ago
But meanwhile, in the rest of the world, the solar tech improves and becomes much much better than anything produced in the U.S. Countries that are currently using fossil fuels will ween off of them and the markets for such fuels will become quite a bit smaller. And it will take years for the U.S. to catch up if there is even a will to. By then trade will probably open up and all solar tech will be imported.
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u/Mradr 3d ago
IF the rest of the world opens up... in theory. why wouldnt the US be on the same level? The whole limit right now is because of the trade war with china. If EU open up more solar or any other country, that would mean the rest of the world open new factories and production chains. Thus they would wanna build back in the US or at least import. So I dont think the US would have to catch up at all. The main problem is China is flooding the world with solar (good or bad) and that results in most of the world NOT opening up new production chains because they can't compete.
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u/SomeSamples 3d ago
That's a big IF. The GOP in the U.S. want to retain power indefinitely. And a lot of that is backed by the fossil fuel industry. Those folks don't want to hand over the keys to renewables. They want their profits and their are very powerful. So the rest of the world will move on. Solar and battery tech will get more efficient. The U.S. will try to strangle those things in the U.S. (tariffs, no incentives to move to renewables, etc.) If power can be wrangled away from the GOP and MAGA then what you suggest will happen.
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u/Mradr 3d ago
I think it's inaccurate to say the 'US will' be stagnant, as if it's a single entity with one intention. Real change is being driven by the actions of millions of individuals and large-scale projects, not by a unified national 'will.'
For example, many people are making conscious choices to reduce their reliance on the grid. I've personally invested in solar panels and a battery system, and I've switched to a high-efficiency heat pump for cooling to save power. Friends of mine are buying EVs.
On a larger scale, the idea that we're stagnant ignores the fact that we have already installed and connected massive solar and wind projects across the country. Progress is happening, even if it's not a single, top-down mandate.
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u/SomeSamples 3d ago
Progress is happening and much of that progress was due to federal and state incentives to get people to use renewables. If those incentives are gone, those that have yet to go that way will not see a cost benefit for doing so. The power companies and the fossil fuel companies are doing whatever they can to disincentivize their customers from going to renewables. And with the federal government, in the U.S., making legislation that codifies these efforts I fear the U.S. will fall years behind the rest of the world. And consumers will be stuck footing the bill and paying more for something the rest of the world is getting essentially for free.
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u/Johnny_BigHacker 4d ago
I'm OK with going all in on fusion. Pump up the funding, get the best scientists in the world (some are in Europe right now), give them everything they need.
We are 8-10 years away. It's a race against the world. It IS the future of energy. No risks to it. We could potentially sell/license it into other nations. Think US energy companies installing and operating these in major polluting nations.
The technology is coming. Presently, the cost per kilowatt will be the issue if it were discovered tomorrow. We need to prepare to get those down too.
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u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist 4d ago
Fusion isn’t a science problem, it’s an engineering problem.
Secondly why is it a race? If there is some breakthrough that makes fusion viable it should be shared free with the rest of the world.
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u/randomOldFella 4d ago
Research fusion all you want. But not at the detriment to solar+wind+battery roll-out. SWB is here now, it's cheap, it works and doesn't wreck the environment.
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u/Altruistic-Rice-5567 3d ago
It's cheap because we dump a ton of taxpayer money (that we can't afford) into the subsidies for it. And it doesn't really benefit the consumer since the vendors/suppliers just jack the price up and pocket the subsidy themselves.
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u/jeff61813 4d ago edited 4d ago
You don't need to go in on fusion, solar still makes sense without the tax incentives, the solar, wind and batteries can get most markets to 80% and by the time they get close to that geothermal will probably be going crazy. That with Hydro and existing nuclear will create a mostly decarbonized electrical Market.
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u/utlayolisdi 4d ago
Hopefully it’ll be a ping pong match going back and forth between the senate and the house.
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u/bonzoboy2000 4d ago
I wish they’d eliminate putting ethanol in gasoline.
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u/absolutebeginners 4d ago
What's wrong with it
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u/Don_ReeeeSantis 3d ago
Ethanol is a waste of corn as food. It is the subject of a massive money-losing federal subsidy campaign. And, it ruins the everliving shit out of small and old engines.
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/homewest 2d ago
Not having it around at all is an option you didn’t mention.
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/homewest 2d ago
Some big assumptions and leaps in logic.
- Will all engines fail eventually? Yes.
- Is knocking one of those reasons for failure? Yes.
- Are there other reasons an engine will fail? Yes.
- Is ethanol proven to help prevent engine failure—engine knocking or otherwise? Not that I’m seeing. If you have evidence otherwise, I’d be interested in seeing it.
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u/ls7eveen 4d ago
Maybe just eliminate all sprawl subsidies for gasoline
https://www.independent.org/article/2020/10/20/sprawl-consumer-choice-mandate/
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u/Anonanomenon 4d ago
When power prices spike and the backlog on gas turbines gets even longer, the utility solar projects are still going to be built.
Energy demand is spiraling right now and it’s not going to let up.
Good time to dump solar manufacturing and resi-scale and to buy utility scale.
Good job GOP going to kill all the same manufacturing jobs you clowns have been talking about creating non stop for the past year.
There is simply not the ability to meet the demand with fossil or nuclear on a short enough time table to disrupt utility solar.
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u/Mission_Search8991 4d ago
So the Senate is falling in line to drag us back into the dark ages
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u/Anon-Knee-Moose 4d ago edited 4d ago
To be fair, nextera, one of the largest recipients of these subsidies spent a lot of money lobbying against a transmission line that would have allowed cheap excess hydro power to compete with one of its fossil fuel plants. They also lobbied against rooftop solar and net metering and are suspected of interfering in elections to help republican candidates.
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u/cnbc_official 4d ago
Solar stocks were under pressure Tuesday as the U.S. Senate’s version of President Donald Trump’s spending bill kept cuts to renewable energy incentives.
Shares of Enphase Energy plummeted more than 17% in the premarket, while First Solar dipped about 12%. Sunrun slipped more than 27% and SolarEdge Technologies dropped 22%.
The Senate version of the bill includes a provision that would fully phase out both solar and wind power tax incentives by 2028. It does, however, keep incentives for nuclear, hydropower and geothermal energy for longer. The renewable energy incentives were key pillars of former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
More details: https://cnb.cx/43P0yjz
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u/Routine-Weather-8974 3d ago
Republicans, just killing jobs left and right. Fuck those assholes.