SEAN SULLIVAN JUNE 11, 2025 4:10 PM

With the clean energy tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act, businesses have announced plans to create over 20,000 new clean energy jobs and invest over $32 billion into South Carolina’s economy over the next decade.

These strategic investments in advanced energy manufacturing, electric transportation, and electric grid resilience are powering job creation, revitalizing rural areas, and positioning South Carolina as a national leader in American-made energy. These clean energy tax credits are critical for businesses, like mine, here in South Carolina in order to maintain investment and continue growing the manufacturing base within the Palmetto State.

South Carolina’s power grid — like much of the nation’s — is aging and under rising pressure.

Demand from data centers, manufacturing expansions, and electric vehicles is expected to surge over the next decade. In South Carolina, the commercial and industrial electricity rates are 10.97 cents/kWh and 7.01 cents/kWh, respectively, and both are below the national average.

However, electricity rates are up almost 6% from the year prior. Reduced incentivized investment in clean energy infrastructure could lead to even higher prices due to a reliance on more expensive, traditional power sources. Strategic energy investments, supported by stable tax policies, will help us avoid future grid shortfalls, prevent the risk of rolling blackouts, and reduce long-term energy costs for South Carolina families and businesses.

Tax credits are not a new concept — they have been a bipartisan policy tool used for decades to support emerging technologies. From artificial intelligence to biotechnology, to government investments driving technologies like GPS and the internet, these investments have repeatedly demonstrated their value. Clean energy technologies are no exception.

In 2024, over 2,600 megawatts of solar energy capacity came online in South Carolina, equating to enough power to supply 325,640 homes.

Over the next five years, South Carolina is projected to add over 2,500 megawatts of solar capacity.

Retaining the existing energy tax credits will allow businesses in South Carolina to continue to develop and deploy renewable energy technologies which are vital to improve grid resiliency, promote greater efficiency that results in lower energy costs for everyone, and foster economic opportunities in our rural communities.

Energy diversification mirrors a sound investment portfolio. Just as diverse assets protect against market volatility, multiple energy sources safeguard against physical and cyber threats. In addition, if we’re manufacturing these technologies here in South Carolina, we are securing our energy independence by growing our ability to produce what we need at home and having greater control over our supply chain.

Businesses have planned with these tax incentives in mind and rely upon them for capital allocation, planning, and project commitments — all of which would be threatened by the whiplash of major changes to these credits or further restrictions.

We’ve already seen a taste of what this disruption can do.

Recent federal changes and uncertainty have led to an indefinite pause in the construction of the AESC manufacturing facility in Florence, a $1.6 billion investment that promised to create 1,600 jobs in the Pee Dee.

A full repeal of these vital credits would undermine significant progress made in clean energy innovation, economic growth, and national security, and likely cede jobs and progress to China.

Now it’s up to our elected officials on Capitol Hill to decide whether these clean energy tax credits continue as Congress intended in 2022.

These private and public investments will spur domestic production of clean energy technologies which will set the United States up to compete in the global clean energy economy and create thousands more in clean energy jobs that will benefit all South Carolinians.

South Carolina businesses are ready to build — ready to invest in local workers, modern energy systems, and secure supply chains. But we need policy certainty to stay competitive.

Keeping these energy tax credits will empower American enterprise, protect ratepayers, and secure South Carolina’s leadership in 21st-century manufacturing.

SEAN SULLIVAN

Sean Sullivan is a founding partner at EMPWR Solar, a multi-state solar energy company started in 2020 and headquartered in Mount Pleasant. A Charleston County resident, Sullivan has been involved in the solar industry since 2016.