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Welcome back to Current Climate. The Trump administration’s hostility toward Joe Biden’s clean energy programs has stymied offshore wind and green hydrogen projects and depressed sales of electric vehicles. But surging demand for electricity, driven by the unchecked growth of power-thirsty AI data centers, continues to underpin boom times for the battery storage industry.

The U.S. added 9.7 gigawatt-hours of battery storage capacity in this first quarter, up 32% from a year ago and a record for the period, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. At the current pace, the country may have over 610 GWh of energy storage in place by 2030. Much of that capacity is paired with solar and wind systems, helping to limit the growth of climate-warping carbon emissions from fossil fuel-generated electricity.

“Energy storage is no longer just for backup; it’s critical energy security infrastructure,” said Benchmark Mineral researcher Shan Tomouk.

That demand has led companies such as Ford and General Motors to redirect battery projects away from EVs, sales of which fell 27% in the U.S. in the first quarter following Trump’s elimination of the $7,500 federal tax credit, to get into the energy business, an area in which Tesla has competed for years.

While the battery boom is a positive development, overall U.S. investment in clean tech dropped 9% in the quarter from a year ago to $61 billion, according to The Clean Energy Monitor. That decline largely reflected the drop in EV sales from a year ago. Unfortunately, announced investment plans for clean tech manufacturing totaled just $2 billion in the quarter, plunging by 79% from 2025’s first quarter and the lowest level in more than five........

© Forbes