3 under-the-radar ways the Inflation Reduction Act has made significant impact (including to your wallet)

It’s been two years since Congress passed the landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), so it’s time to take stock. We looked back one year ago, and now it’s time to see what has been done over the past two years. 

A hallmark of the bill was a promise to slash carbon emissions by about 40% by 2030, but a host of other promises were made. However, many of the real impacts that will make a difference for the average American may not be easily apparent—at least for now. 

A review of the projects being financed by the Department of Energy under the IRA and the Investing in America agenda reveals some of the ways the IRA is benefiting America that few are talking about. 

How it’s helped your wallet

Let’s start with the more obvious progress. According to a series of tallies from the White House:

•  3.4 million Americans tapped $8.4 billion in IRA tax credits to slash the costs of clean energy and energy efficiency upgrades in homes.
• In 2024 year-to-date, over 250,000 Americans claimed tax credits on electric vehicles, amounting to $1.5 billion in savings.
• Over 99% of high-poverty U.S. counties benefit from Investing in America projects funded by the IRA, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, or CHIPS and Science Act.
• According to the U.S. Treasury, more than 1.2 million American families have claimed over $6 billion in residential clean energy investments, with the average amounting to $5,000 per family.

The numbers clearly show the positive impacts of the bill, but they might not tell the entire story. Michael Fontaine, managing partner at Brookline Capital Markets, said the IRA has certainly helped from a consumer standpoint but cautioned that it’s still early.

“In the near term, there is a risk that demand for clean energy wanes, especially in the EV market,” he warned. “It’s hard to predict consumer sentiment when it comes to automobiles. Negative press, like debris from a shattered wind turbine landing on Nantucket, may also dampen consumer enthusiasm. There are challenges that we still need to overcome as we shift to clean energy, but the IRA has certainly helped.”

Grid improvements

The Department of Energy looks at the IRA from a different angle: Businesses that benefited from the IRA over the last two years. The projects on this list will have an outsized impact on the communities in which they’re being planned and built, creating clean-energy jobs and more.

For example, Project Hestia will serve the entire U.S. with its virtual power plant, which expands access to rooftop solar and battery storage. Virtual power plants (VPPs) enable grid operators to control demand from end users by communicating with distributed energy resources.

VPPs can also make the grid more resilient and reliable—both significant needs with an aging power grid and at a time when power demand will skyrocket due to the energy transition and other factors like artificial intelligence. Virtual power plants will also be critical as more renewable energy comes online by controlling the electricity supply. Renewable energy isn’t generated all the time due to varying weather conditions.

EV collaboration

While many people think about electric vehicles (EVs) as a natural part of the energy transition, they don’t think about what goes under the hood—and what’s necessary to make everything happen. The wide range of projects financed by the DOE illustrates the importance of collaboration.

Project Rhyolite Ridge supports Esmeralda County in Nevada with jobs and serves the domestic EV supply chain by processing lithium carbonate. Additionally, Entek is building a facility in Indiana that will serve the lithium-ion EV battery market by providing U.S.-produced battery separators to EV manufacturers. 

Blueoval SK is also building battery plants in Kentucky and Tennessee, the largest conditional commitment ever announced via the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.

Redwood Materials in McCarran, Nevada is building a battery component recycling and production facility to support the EV supply chain. Meanwhile, Li-Cycle is building another battery recycling facility in Rochester, New York.

Cellink, the first project under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program to close its financing since the IRA was passed, is building a manufacturing facility to help improve and onshore production of vehicle wiring. 

As all of these companies collaborate and work together on EVs, we should see all their components transformed into an increasing number of EVs eligible for tax credits because they meet the requirements for domestic production. The EV tax credits are on offer until the end of 2032.

Industrial improvements

Finally, few people are talking about the many improvements that the IRA is enabling to support industry. For example, LongPath is serving Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas with its high-frequency methane emissions monitoring network for U.S. oil and gas production basins.

Additionally, the DOE agreed to a conditional commitment to finance Bioforge’s facility to sustainably manufacture organic acids for the concrete, cleaning, agricultural, and energy industries. Under a conditional commitment with the DOE, fuel cell maker Plug Power plans to produce and liquify hydrogen fuel using American-made electrolyzers to supply companies nationwide.

With all these post-IRA projects that have been planned and are somewhere within the financing phase with the DOE or beyond, we can expect to see the number of jobs added going forward rise exponentially in the coming years.

Not counting the projects listed above that haven’t come online yet, over 330,000 new U.S. jobs have been created by the more-than $265 billion that’s been invested in clean energy since the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law two years ago.

Of course, it’s impossible to predict the future results of the Inflation Reduction Act, but the many projects the DOE is looking at financing under the terms of the bill demonstrates that we’re looking at a significant number of jobs coming online in the next few years.

Looking over the next decade, the Bluegreen Alliance, formed by the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club, estimates that the IRA will create over 9 million “good” jobs in the next 10 years. Thus, while the job creation we’ve seen is outstanding, it’s only a drop in the bucket compared to what we expect in the coming years.