Insights from Wood Mackenzie’s Solar & Energy Storage Summit 2025

Wood Mackenzie hosted its 18th annual Solar & Energy Storage Summit on April 23 and 24, 2025 in Denver, Colorado.

The conference brought together more than 400 executives and thought leaders focused on the challenges, opportunities and uncertainty the solar and storage industries currently face.

There were presentations and panel discussions on various topics, ranging from the shifting dynamics of the solar and storage supply chains driven by additional tariffs and domestic manufacturing growth to the future of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to the energy demand boom. Although policy and tariff uncertainty are plaguing the industry, there was an undercurrent of optimism at the event, with many players choosing to continue business as usual and address changes as they come.

Our analysts shared their most important reflections in a recent insight: Insights from Wood Mackenzie’s Solar & Energy Storage Summit 2025. These reflections showcase the top themes, emerging issues and key findings directly from the solar and storage industries. Access the full report here, or read on for a quick summary of the key themes and a slightly deeper dive into just three of them. 

At a high level, our five key takeaways from the event were:

• Current policy and market uncertainty results in hindered investment and an uptick in costs
• Solar and storage do not live or die with the IRA
• Distributed solar-plus-storage PV projects are uniquely positioned to scale quickly and meet the growing energy demand of corporate players
• While the solar industry must balance emerging technologies with energy yield and life cycle management, it is clear technological innovation will continue lowering the cost of solar
• Emerging technologies continue to draw excitement
• The solar and storage industries face significant challenges, but innovative solutions and strategic shifts are emerging to maintain growth and efficiency

Current policy and market uncertainty results in hindered investment and an uptick in costs

Tariff and policy uncertainty were the focus of most conversations, as organizations across the value chain exchanged ideas on how to manage ongoing supply chain disruptions. Attendees agreed that energy storage has been more impacted by recent tariff escalation compared to solar. We broadly heard that storage projects that did not already have supply in the country were being paused until developers, utilities and investors could determine where costs would settle. Additionally, the continuous back and forth on tariffs and the uncertainty about the future of the IRA are driving up the cost of capital and impacting investment decisions.

Solar and storage do not live or die with the IRA

Political uncertainty surrounding the IRA's future dominated discussions at the conference. Despite the unknown fate of this landmark bill, two key themes emerged: the IRA has already significantly impacted the market, and solar and storage will inevitably weather potential storms.

Distributed solar-plus-storage PV projects are uniquely positioned to scale quickly and meet the growing energy demand of corporate players

A key question dominated several presentations and panels throughout the conference: Are solar and storage the best suited technologies to meet growing energy demand? The rise of US domestic manufacturing and artificial intelligence drives unprecedented potential for energy demand growth. However, new gas turbine orders will not be able to meet all of this demand growth through 2030.

Given these resource constraints, conference panelists and attendees reached a consensus: solar and storage remain crucial to meeting demand growth, even in the face of policy and trade headwinds.

Panelists particularly highlighted distributed solar's attractiveness, whether through onsite generation, virtual power purchase agreements, or community solar subscriptions, due to its ability to scale quickly compared with large utility-scale systems. Virtual Power Plants can similarly bring cost-effective power to the grid quickly.

Read the full report

The above is a heavily redacted version of our comprehensive report - Insights from Wood Mackenzie’s Solar & Energy Storage Summit 2025 - which you can read in full here. 

Full list of report contributors

• Ben Boucher, Senior Research Analyst
  Benjamin.Boucher@woodmac.com
• Sagar Chopra, Senior Research Analyst
  Sagar.Chopra@woodmac.com
• Caitlin Connelly, Senior Research Analyst
  Caitlin.Connelly@woodmac.com
• Kaitlin Fung, Research Analyst
  Kaitlin.Fung@woodmac.com
• Zoë Gaston, Principal Analyst
  Zoe.Gaston@woodmac.com
• Max Issokson, Research Analyst
  Max.Issokson@woodmac.com
• Kasim Khan, Senior Research Analyst
  Kasim.Khan@woodmac.com
• Sylvia Levya Martinez, Principal Analyst
  Sylvia.Levya@woodmac.com
• Hanna Nuttall, Research Analyst
  Hanna.Nuttall@woodmac.com
• Elissa Pierce, Research Analyst
  Elissa.Pierce@woodmac.com
• Allison Weis, Global Head of Storage
  Allison.Weis@woodmac.com