Summary
In the final quarter of 2025, clean energy and transportation investment in the United States totaled $60 billion. This represents a 23% decline from the previous quarter (which was a record-high for clean investment) and an 11% dip from Q4 of 2024. Despite the Q4 slowdown, clean investment in 2025 reached $278 billion, the highest annual total in our database and a 5% increase from 2024. Clean investment accounted for 4.3% of total private investment in structures, equipment, and durable consumer goods in Q4 2025, dropping a full percentage point from the previous quarter’s record high.
Consumer purchases of electric vehicles (EVs) and other clean technology (heat pumps, distributed generation, and storage), tracked in our retail segment, declined substantially in Q4, falling 36% quarter-on-quarter as the expiration of the 30D consumer EV tax credit settled in. Despite this decline, retail remained the largest segment of investment this quarter at $26 billion, representing 43% of total clean investment. Over the full year, retail purchases of EVs and other clean technologies represented nearly half (49%) of total clean investment, underscoring the central role of consumer spending. EV sales accounted for 35% of all clean investment in 2025, reflecting strong consumer demand in Q3 ahead of the consumer EV tax credit expiration.
Investment tracked in our clean technology manufacturing segment continued its downward trend in Q4 2025, declining for a fifth consecutive quarter. Manufacturing investment fell 5% quarter-on-quarter and was down 29% relative to Q4 2024. Investment in our third segment, utility-scale clean electricity and industrial decarbonization technologies, reached $25 billion in Q4, an 11% decline from the prior quarter but a 21% increase relative to Q4 2024.
Forward-looking indicators weakened further in Q4 2025. In manufacturing, announcements declined to $3 billion, down 48% relative to both Q3 2025 and Q4 2024, marking this quarter as the lowest period of announcements since Q4 2020. For this segment, announcements are down 26% in 2025 compared to 2024. Utility-scale clean electricity and industrial decarbonization project announcements totaled $22 billion, mostly coming from solar and storage projects, and were down 2% relative to the previous quarter. Announcements in this segment in 2025 are also down 46% compared to the previous year. Developers canceled roughly $9 billion of investments in energy and industry projects this quarter, a massive increase compared to around $2 billion in cancellations during the previous quarter. In manufacturing, canceled projects totaled $8 billion, the highest cancellations quarter on record, driven mainly by cancellations in the EV supply chain.
In addition to summarizing trends from our quarterly update to the Clean Investment Monitor, this report examines canceled investment in the manufacturing segment. Since Q1 2018, $29 billion in manufacturing investment has been canceled, consisting of 52 distinct projects. Only $6 billion of cancellations occurred prior to 2025, with $23 billion (79%) tied to 24 projects occurring in 2025. If we factor in earlier-stage cancellations, including facilities halted before site selection and facilities retired, that total rises to $46 billion, consisting of 95 distinct projects. During 2025, 42 projects tied to $30 billion (65%) of investment were canceled. Canceled investment surpassed new announced investment in Q2 2025 and in Q4 2025, with the EV supply chain experiencing the most turbulence. Collectively, we estimate around 27,000 operational jobs in the manufacturing segment were affected by cancellations, two-thirds (68%) of which were tied to projects canceled in 2025.
Investment trends
Actual clean energy and transportation investment in the US in the final quarter of 2025 stood at $60 billion, a 23% decline from the previous quarter’s record high (Figure 1). Q4 2025 marks the first instance in our tracking of negative year-over-year growth in clean investment. Since 2019, quarterly investment has surpassed the level observed in the same period of the previous year—even when quarter-on-quarter declines occurred. That trend ended in Q4 2025, when investment declined 11% from the level observed in Q4 2024. The $278 billion invested collectively in 2025 across all categories surpassed the $266 billion invested in 2024 by 5%. In Q4 2025, clean investment accounted for 4.3% of total US private investment in structures, equipment, and durable consumer goods nationwide, falling more than one full percentage point from the previous quarter, which held the highest share of investment on record at 5.5%, largely driven by the surge in EV sales (Figure 2).
We categorize our clean investment tracking into three segments: investment in the manufacture of GHG emission-reducing technology (“manufacturing”); investment in the deployment of that technology, both to produce clean energy or decarbonize industrial production (“energy and industry”); and investment through the purchase and installation of that technology by individual households and businesses (“retail”). Each dollar figure in this report reflects actual investment—the real dollars spent in the given quarter on retail purchases, facility construction, and equipment purchase and installation. For facilities, we track actual capital expenditures invested over the construction timeline once a project breaks ground. In the following sections of this report, we summarize actual and announced investments, which provide context and insight into potential future actual investments.
Retail investment accounted for nearly half (49%) of total clean investment in the entirety of 2025 at around $135 billion. In Q4 2025, retail investment stood at $26 billion, a 36% decline from the previous quarter’s record high, and a 24% decrease relative to Q4 2024. Despite the Q4 slowdown, annual investment in the retail segment increased by 4% in 2025 compared to 2024. In Q4 2025, manufacturing investment decreased for a fifth consecutive quarter to $9 billion, falling 5% quarter-on-quarter and down 29% compared to Q4 2024. Over the full year of 2025, manufacturing investment was 17% below 2024 levels. In the energy and industry segment, $25 billion was invested in clean energy production and industrial decarbonization in Q4 2025, an 11% decline from the previous quarter, and a 21% increase compared to Q4 2024. Across energy and industry, actual investment was up 18% in 2025 compared to the previous year, with utility-scale electricity accounting for 96% of the 2025 investment total.
Project cancellations accelerated in Q4 2025, with around $8 billion in canceled clean technology manufacturing projects and roughly $9 billion in canceled clean electricity and industrial decarbonization projects.
Manufacturing
In Q4 2025, manufacturing investment dropped by 5% from the previous quarter to $9 billion, a 29% decline compared to Q4 2024. Investment fell across nearly all technology categories during the quarter, with only electrolyzer projects retaining a steady stream of investment ($50 million). Compared to 2024, annual manufacturing investment in 2025 declined 17% to $42 billion.
The EV supply chain—critical minerals, batteries, vehicle assembly, and charging equipment—continued to dominate clean manufacturing investment in Q4 2025, accounting for 85% of all investments at roughly $8 billion (Figure 4). However, investment in the EV supply chain declined for a fourth consecutive quarter, falling 4% from Q3 2025 and 32% relative to Q4 2024. Battery manufacturing investment, the primary driver of investments in the EV supply chain, fell 3% quarter-on-quarter to roughly $6 billion, down 38% compared to Q4 2024. Solar and wind manufacturing project investments fell 12% and 17% from Q3 2025 to $1 billion and $20 million, respectively. Both technologies, however, gained relative to Q4 2024, with solar rising 1% and wind jumping a substantial 44%. For the full year 2025, EV supply chain investment declined 16% relative to 2024.
Newly announced manufacturing projects totaled $3 billion in Q4 2025, a 48% decline both quarter-on-quarter and relative to Q4 2024. This marks the lowest quarterly level of investment announcements since Q4 2020. The EV supply chain accounted for the majority of announced manufacturing investment at around 86% of the total, with batteries comprising $2 billion of the $3 billion total.
During Q4 2025, companies canceled $8 billion worth of manufacturing projects, representing the largest quarterly total of cancellations on record. Canceled investment surpassed the level of announced investment for manufacturing projects by $5 billion, repeating a dynamic we saw in Q2 2025, when canceled investments exceeded announcements by around $600 million.
Energy and industry
In Q4 2025, $25 billion was invested in clean energy production and industrial decarbonization, an 11% decline from the previous quarter’s record high, but a 21% increase compared to Q4 2024. For the full year 2025, investments in this segment totaled $101 billion, an increase of 18% from 2024 annual investments. Within energy and industry, $24 billion (97%) went towards clean electricity, with industrial decarbonization representing the remaining share.
Utility-scale solar and storage installations continued to dominate clean electricity investment, accounting for $18 billion, a 9% decrease from the previous quarter, but a 9% increase relative to Q4 2024 (Figure 5). Wind investment declined 13% from the previous quarter to $6 billion, but was up 97% compared to Q4 2024 levels.
Industrial decarbonization investment totaled roughly $1 billion in Q4 2025, a 24% decline quarter-on-quarter and a 36% decrease relative to Q4 2024 (Figure 6). Hydrogen continued to lead at around $400 million, though investment levels declined 24% both from the previous quarter and Q4 2024. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) investment dropped 39% quarter-on-quarter to $90 million, a sizeable 77% dip compared to Q4 2024. Carbon management investment was up slightly by 1% quarter-on-quarter, and down 10% from the same period last year, hovering around $100 million. Clean fuels saw a 50% decline quarter-on-quarter, while clean iron and steel remained steady. Clean cement, accounting for the smallest portion of investment in this segment, declined 32% relative to Q3 2025.
Announced investments in clean electricity projects increased 8% from the previous quarter to $22 billion. However, announcements during the full year were down 39% in 2025 compared to 2024. Solar and storage accounted for 91% of all new utility electricity project announcements in Q4 2025 at around $20 billion, while wind projects made up the remainder at around $2 billion. Industrial decarbonization investment announcements totaled $400 million, marking the lowest quarterly level since Q2 2020. Collectively, announcements in energy and industry projects declined 46% in 2025 to $113 billion, compared to $208 billion in 2024.
Cancellations across the energy and industry segment reached $9 billion in Q4 2025, a significant increase compared to $2 billion during the previous quarter and $8 billion in Q4 2024. For the full year, $34 billion of clean electricity and industrial decarbonization investment was canceled, up 11% from $31 billion during 2024.
Retail
Consumer spending on zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), distributed renewable electricity generation and storage, and heat pumps totaled $26 billion in Q4 2025, a 36% decline from the record-high $41 billion invested in Q3 2025. Over the full year, retail investment totaled $135 billion, accounting for nearly half of the $278 billion invested across all segments in 2025. This is up 4% from the $130 billion invested in this segment in 2024.
EV sales continued to drive the majority of retail investment in Q4 2025, accounting for 68% of total quarterly investment at around $18 billion. EV investment declined 43% from the previous quarter’s record high and was down 31% relative to Q4 2024 (Figure 7).
Distributed electricity generation and storage investment totaled $5 billion in Q4 2025, increasing 8% from the previous quarter and 35% compared to Q4 2024. Heat pump investment reached $3 billion, representing a 36% decline quarter-on-quarter and a 29% decrease compared to Q4 2024.
Consumer tax credits to support the purchase and installation of heat pumps and distributed electricity & storage expired at the end of Q4 2025. Consumer EV tax credits expired at the end of Q3 2025.
Manufacturing cancellations signal a tightening clean tech pipeline
Since Q1 2018, the Clean Investment Monitor has tracked $29 billion in canceled manufacturing investment, representing 10% of all announced investment ($279 billion) and consisting of 52 of the 657 total distinct projects. The vast majority of this—$23 billion, or 79%, tied to 24 projects—occurred in 2025, compared to $6 billion in canceled investments in all other years prior. If we factor in earlier-stage cancellations, including facilities halted before site selection and facilities retired, that total rises from $29 billion to $46 billion, consisting of 95 distinct projects. During 2025, 42 projects tied to $30 billion (65%) of investment were canceled. This concentration of cancellations signals a shift towards a narrowing project pipeline relative to earlier years in our database.
The $23 billion in canceled manufacturing investments in 2025, when compared to the $24 billion in announced new investments, represents a tighter gap between new announcements and cancellations than any prior year in our database (Figure 8). Canceled investment in 2025 was five times higher than in 2024 and represents 8% of the value of all announced manufacturing investment since 2018. Cancellations exceeded new announcements in two quarters during 2025—Q2 ($4.5 billion announced vs. $5.1 billion canceled) and Q4 ($3 billion announced vs. $8 billion canceled)—highlighting a marked slowdown in new project development amid growing headwinds and uncertainty in clean tech manufacturing.
Most (97%) of the canceled investments in 2025 occurred in the EV supply chain, a total of $22 billion, which exceeded the $21 billion in announced new investments (Figure 9). Battery manufacturing accounted for $11 billion in canceled investment in 2025, more than 10 times the level observed in 2024. Announced battery investment totaled $8 billion in 2025, leaving a $3 billion deficit between announced and canceled projects. In EV assembly, announced investment ($10 billion) slightly surpassed cancellations ($9 billion), representing 41% of canceled investment. In critical minerals, announced investment ($3 billion) also exceeded cancellations ($1 billion).
Cancellations outside of the EV supply chain were comparatively small. Solar manufacturing cancellations reached $300 million in 2025, compared to the $3 billion announced. The remaining cancellations came from electrolyzer manufacturing, totaling $400 million, with no new announcements during the year.
Overall, cancellations in 2025 represented 8% of cumulative announced manufacturing investment since Q1 2018. Within the EV supply chain, 9% of announced investment in our database going back to Q1 2018 was canceled in 2025. Vehicle assembly projects were hardest hit, with 17% of cumulative announced investment canceled in 2025, while battery manufacturing cancellations amounted to 7% of cumulative announced investment. Critical mineral projects experienced cancellations equivalent to 5% of cumulative announced investment.
Other technologies, such as solar, fared better comparatively. Solar manufacturing saw 2025 cancellations equivalent to just 1% of cumulative announced investments, while the pipelines of announced wind and fueling equipment manufacturing experienced no cancellations in 2025. Proportionally, electrolyzer manufacturing experienced the largest impact with around one-fifth of cumulative announced investment canceled during the year, roughly $1 in every $5 of announced investment.
Across all clean tech manufacturing projects tracked since 2018, we estimate roughly 27,000 operational jobs were affected by project cancellations. Of these jobs, roughly 18,000, or 68%, stem from projects canceled in 2025, underscoring the magnitude of cancellations during the year. The EV supply chain has been predominantly impacted relative to the other technologies, accounting for 93% of all affected jobs in 2025.