The Clean Economy Tracker brings together valuable, disparate information related to investment and jobs in clean energy and technology manufacturing. The methodology, described below, provides users with important background on the key data parameters as well as methods for collection and categorization.
High-Level Questions
This dashboard tracks investments, jobs, and production capacity for clean energy and clean technology manufacturing facilities in the United States. The tracked manufacturing activities include:
- Batteries and Battery Components
- Battery Recycling
- Critical Mineral Extraction and Processing (including cobalt, lithium, manganese, graphite, nickel, and uranium)
- Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging
- EV Component and Assembly
- Heat Pumps
- Hydrogen Electrolyzers
- Solar Energy Components and Assembly
- Transmission & Grid Materials
- Wind Energy Components and Assembly
Additionally, data related to research and development facilities, non-commercial pilot plants, or company headquarters are out of scope.
The core data powering this dashboard is investment announcements from clean energy, clean technologies, and related component manufacturers. This data is collected by monitoring company press releases and news outlets. As a result, the data is forward-looking and may change materially by the time a facility begins production. Data collection commenced in Q3 2023 and is an ongoing effort. If a facility was opened and closed before data collection began in Q3 2023, then it will not be included in the data.
A facility is only included in the dataset once the state where it will be sited is announced. All facilities with an announced address are mapped and matched with geospatial data that shows whether the facility is in an energy community, rural community, or low-income community, and the facility’s current congressional district. This data is aggregated at different levels. Users are encouraged to read the “Data Collection Methodology” and “Data Fields” sections below to get a better understanding of the assumptions made to combine these disparate data sources.
The data is updated at least weekly. The date when the data was last updated will appear on the dashboard.
Data is primarily sourced through original research derived from news reporting and primary sources. Data is also sourced from U.S. Department of Energy reports, including Building America’s Clean Energy Future. Sources for each announcement are linked on the dashboard. Facility address data was sourced through original research and government records. The data was crosschecked with other energy sector tracking tools run by groups including CHARGED, Rhodium Group, E2, BlueGreen Alliance, and Climate Power.
The core data of this dashboard is made up of individual, facility-level announcements related to estimated investments and jobs. These figures are announcements and so may change as projects evolve or are canceled. Additional announcements are recorded in cases where any data point increases or decreases. For example, a facility may announce a decrease in its production capacity from its first announcement. This change would be displayed as a new row of data in the summary table. An announcement with negative numbers on the dashboard refers to a reduction in expected or actualized jobs, investment and/or capacity numbers.
The sum of data across all announcements for a facility will be displayed on all visuals, not as separate data points. These changes are included in the dashboard so that users can view both the original and revised figures. Charts and visuals aggregate data by facility location to account for all announcements at that facility. For example, there are multiple announcements for the Toyota North Carolina Battery Plant in the summary table, but the map aggregates all announcements into a single data point.
In the case of a joint venture (JV), the investment, jobs, and production capacity are split between the companies and recorded as separate announcements. An announcement will include (JV) in the facility name if it is a joint venture.
Separate from the manufacturing facilities surfaced in the first and second tabs, demonstration facilities include non-manufacturing, commercial scale deployment projects that receive funding from the DOE, authorized through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Tracked facilities include those that receive funding under the following programs: Advanced Reactor Demonstration Projects, Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program, Carbon Capture Large-Scale Pilot Projects, Catalytic Demonstrations Support, Clean Energy Demonstration Program on Current and Former Mine Land, Distributed Energy Systems Demonstrations Program, Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas, Industrial Demonstrations Program, Long-Duration Energy Storage Demonstrations, Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs, and Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs. Funding Announced includes all funding allocated to projects i.e. both funding awarded and funding awarded, pending negotiations.
At the top of the Dashboard, there are five KPIs:
- Facilities: All manufacturing facilities surfaced on the dashboard.
- Announced Investment: All funding announced for the manufacturing facilities surfaced on the dashboard.
- Announced Jobs: All permanent manufacturing jobs announced for the facilities surfaced on the dashboard.
- Jobs in Energy Communities: The total number of announced jobs, where an address is available, mapped onto the DOE’s Energy Community dataset (updated 4/4/2024). An energy community is defined as:
- a metropolitan statistical area or non-metropolitan statistical area that achieves an unemployment rate at or above the national average for the prior year or 0.17 percent or greater direct employment or 25 percent or greater local tax revenues related to pre-combustion activities for coal, oil, and natural gas, or
- a census tract in which a coal mine or coal-fired electric generating unit has been retired in a given timeframe.
- a brownfield site (not included in this dataset),
- % Investment in Republican Districts: The percentage of announced investment tied to facilities located in congressional districts currently represented by a Republican member in the U.S. House of Representatives. Facilities where an address is not known are excluded. Congressional district data is updated on a monthly basis to reflect any new elections or changes in district boundaries. For more information on the source of the geolocational information, see here.
If a range is provided for jobs, investments, or production capacity, the midpoint of that range is used. In the case that a company provides a minimum, for instance, “at least 100 jobs”, we record 100 jobs.
Data Fields
The Clean Economy Tracker makes all the data collected available for public use under the Open Data Commons Attribution License. This section describes each data field or categorization used in the dashboard and its source.
Investment data refers to the total a company has announced it will invest in a manufacturing facility. The announced investment may include state and federal incentives (i.e. tax incentives or grants) provided to the private manufacturer after they have committed the self-reported amount. This data point only reflects the investment specifically for clean energy or technology manufacturing at the facility. For example, investments for a facility starting to produce components for solar energy production will be counted, but not investments for producing components outside the scope of the manufacturing focus and technology category (see section labeled “Manufacturing Sector”). In the case that a company’s announcement does not contain investment data, we record the available information and leave the investment field blank. Where a company does not specify the amount invested but there is a record of federal grants for the facility, that total is recorded instead.
Job numbers reflect the announced permanent jobs dedicated to clean energy manufacturing at an announced facility. Indirect and temporary job numbers are not included in the dataset. This data point only relates to the clean energy manufacturing at the facility (i.e. we do not count investment at the same facility to produce other outputs or a company headquarters for instance). In the case that we are not able to attribute the output for clean manufacturing at a facility with an announced investment, no jobs number is recorded.
Low-income areas are defined as having an average poverty rate of 20 percent or greater, according to the U.S. Census. Classification of low-income communities is at the census tract level and is measured between 2015 and 2019. If the poverty rate estimate has a low reliability and the upper or lower bounds of the adjusted poverty rate would change the poverty status of the estimate, then the census tract is defined as “Not Available”.
Facilities are classified as rural or urban depending on their community classification in the U.S. Census. Urban includes areas with a population greater than 2,500, and rural areas or “not urbanized areas” describe anywhere with populations less than 2,500. All classifications are defined based on population density at the census tract and block levels.
Annual production capacity refers to the expected capacity of a facility at the time of the announcement. Facilities with expansion announcements are updated to reflect the additional expected production capacity from added investment. Units of production accompany each reported capacity number (e.g., vehicles, batteries, and gigawatts). In the case that we are not able to attribute the output for clean manufacturing at a facility with an announced investment, no production capacity figure is recorded.
Address data is sourced from company statements or press releases. This data is as accurate as possible, though actual addresses may differ as companies update their addresses or mapping programs update. When an address is not available for a facility, it is marked as “unknown.” A facility is only included in the dataset once the state where it will be sited is known. If a facility location is marked as unknown, it will not surface on the map visuals or the bar graphs on the first tab. However, facilities with unknown locations will surface in the state totals and summary table on the second tab.
The high-level categories for the manufacturing focus at a facility are:
- Batteries: Includes all battery manufacturing for residential, commercial, and industrial energy storage and EVs. The EV batteries category only includes batteries for on-road vehicles, and omits batteries used for other vehicles and machinery (i.e. aircraft, marine, forklifts, RVs/campers, and other applications). This category follows DOE’s battery manufacturing stage categories for component manufacturing, cell and pack manufacturing, and recycling.
- Electric Vehicles: Covers the assembly of on-road EVs, EV charging units, and other vehicle that parts tied to EV-focused investment announcements. This category excludes battery manufacturing. EV categories focus specifically on components that are produced for EVs (i.e. EV Drive Units). The data does not include facilities producing “fuel-agnostic” components that can be used in either an EV or ICEV (i.e. wheels, doors, etc.).
- Heat Pumps: Tracks the production of air source and geothermal heat pumps.
- Hydrogen: Only includes the manufacturing of hydrogen electrolyzers to produce electric hydrogen.
- Minerals: Includes extraction as well as separation and processing of cobalt, lithium, manganese, graphite, nickel, and uranium. We track approved mining projects that are past the demonstration project or feasibility test phases.
- Solar Energy: Includes the assembly of photovoltaic solar panels and cells, manufacturing of ingots, wafers, and other components of the panels but does not include the production of silicon. This category also covers electrical wiring components such as inverters and cables, structural components like trackers and mounting platforms, and recycling facilities.
- Transmission & Grid: Covers production of cables, transformers, and other hardware produced for use in transmission and grid infrastructure. This category should not be confused with transmission and grid infrastructure deployment as it only includes the manufacturing of the materials to support those operations.
- Wind Energy: Includes facilities that manufacture materials for both onshore and offshore wind, designating a facility as onshore only, offshore only, both, or unspecified if it was not indicated in the facility announcement. Covers components including but not limited to turbines, blades, towers, monopiles, nacelles, underwater cables to service offshore wind, gearboxes, bearings, and assembly.
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The date of the facility announcement. If there is no public announcement made via press release or article, and the only available information is the production start year, the announcement date is labeled as January 1st of that year. Dates are only included for announcements made since 2000.
Phase indicates the type of announcement:
- Original: The first announcement of the company establishing a new facility or announcing the start of production at an existing facility.
- Expansion: Announcements that increase the original investment at a facility. Expansions are numbered if more than one exists (i.e., Expansion 1, Expansion 2, etc.).
- Update: Any announcement that indicates a facility has downsized or gone bankrupt, or where there has been any other data update (i.e., production capacity, jobs numbers, etc.). In the case that a facility is canceled or closed it will surface in the data table for reference but will no longer surface anywhere else on the dashboard. Facility data is only updated for permanent or indefinite changes; temporary layoffs or similar announcements will not be surfaced in this dashboard.
Refers to the actual or expected year when the announcement action goes into effect at a facility. This can refer to the start of production or operation, closure effect date, or other type of update.
The operating status is tracked at the time of a facility announcement. After facilities are announced, the operating status is tracked and updated if and when the original status changes. The following categories are used to track progress made at a facility:
- Planned: Any facility that has been announced without physical alteration taking place. The planning phase includes original announcement and siting, permitting and licensing, and any other non-construction actions.
- Under Construction: Any facility that is currently in the process of new construction or retooling.
- Operational: Any facility that has commenced production. This also includes extraction and processing facilities for critical minerals that are on standby.
- Withdrawn: Any facility that has announced a closure or permanent cease of operations. Once the closure announcement has been recorded, all numbers for the facility will be removed when “Announcement Effective Year” reflects the current year or year selected for filtering. The facility will also be removed from the map. If a facility was opened and closed before the data collection process began in Q3 2023, then it will not be included in the data.
For facilities with multiple announcements, the year refers to the actual or expected year when operations at a facility first go into effect.
Each facility includes information on the company (brand or familiar) that operates production, as well as the parent company that owns the brand. If a company is acquired by another company, the name is updated in the data.