Reflections on the first anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act
One year ago, with a stroke of President Biden’s pen, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) became law, forever changing the trajectory of our fight against climate change and boldly showing the world that the US intends to lead the clean energy future. Not a bad way to kick things into high gear.
The IRA is already driving substantial investment and job creation across the country. Over 100 major clean energy manufacturing facilities have been announced this year – roughly equivalent to the past seven years combined. The US solar industry had its best first quarter in history and the market is expected to triple in the next five years. And more than $50 billion in EV supply chain investments have been announced in the US and Canada since the IRA’s passage. All of these investments are creating real jobs, for real people in real communities. And the best part is, we’re just getting started.
In the coming months and years, billions in additional funding from the federal government and billions more from the private sector will be mobilized to further accelerate this clean energy revolution. From our perspective, there are two essential elements of this transition: it needs to happen fast and it needs to reach every community, across all corners of America. Making those two things happen requires access to data – a lot of it. That’s where UtilityAPI comes in.
Shaping the future of UtilityAPI
As a pioneer of the utility data access platform, UtilityAPI has long believed in the transformative power of data. From facilitating rooftop solar installations to electric vehicle charging and beyond, data is a fundamental driver of the clean energy transition. And with the IRA’s passage we understood the clean energy industry was going to need access to more data, and more types of data than ever before.
To meet this moment, UtilityAPI has spent the last 12 months scaling up and scaling out. We have tripled the size of our team, extending our team’s presence across 21 states spanning from Maine to Hawaii. We’ve also been hard at work scaling out our data access network and partnering with utilities and states of all sizes to deploy our data exchange platform. Today our customers can simply and securely access utility data from over 100 utilities across 40 states and the District of Columbia.
Access is one thing but what is exciting is what it is enabling our partners to do, using the data to facilitate more of the changes funded by the IRA – more solar, more EVs, more efficient buildings. In the past year, our data transactions have increased 50%, and over 700 new users have joined our platform.
Driving an equitable clean energy transition
In the long and difficult work of transforming our country to one powered by clean energy, it’s important to pause and celebrate milestones like this one. But having just lived through the hottest month on record and with devastating climate impacts, like the Hawaiian wildfires, reaching every corner of this country, it’s clearer than ever that we need to stick the landing and rapidly accelerate the clean energy revolution and ensure everyone benefits.
So here at UtilityAPI, we aren’t letting up. We are doubling down on our commitment to unlocking the data needed to unleash the clean energy revolution. In the coming months, we are expanding our data access network to cover all 50 states, we will continue to grow our team, we will be announcing a suite of new products and features that will help everyone maximize the benefits of the IRA, ultimately igniting a clean energy future for everyone.
We hope you’ll join us.