It’s a little over a year since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed into law. Solar was one of the main beneficiaries of that law, thanks to the expanded tax credits for the industry. Domestic solar manufacturing, as we discussed on the show a few weeks ago, is poised for a boom, in no small part due to the federal subsidies. So why has the sector fallen out of favour with investors recently?August was a difficult month for the markets in general, but companies including First Solar, Sunrun, Sunpower and Sunnova (who we’ve had on the show, and on our sister podcast the Interchange too) have had it particularly tough. To examine this, host Ed Crooks is joined by our regular finance and investment experts Shanu Mathew, of Lazard Asset Management, and Amy Myers-Jaffe, of NYU’s Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab. Together, look at the residential and utility-scale solar markets and the investment going into them, the US perspective against a global investment backdrop, and the long-term prospects for solar. Also, what went wrong at Proterra? Proterra was an electric bus and battery company championed by President Biden as an example of how the US could build a manufacturing base in cleantech, but it filed for bankruptcy in early August. Do these challenges facing two key sectors impact our perception of the clean energy transition? Finally, ESG investing is in the spotlight yet again. Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock – one of the world’s biggest asset management firms – said recently that he ‘doesn’t use the word ESG any more, because it’s been entirely weaponised...by the far left and weaponised by the far right.” On the other hand, Tariq Fancy, former chief investment officer of sustainable investing at Blackrock, said of ESG that ‘some part is political theatre, some part is substantive. The parts that are political theatre are supported by special interests and others who probably don’t want to see ESG succeed. But some part of it is also that people were talking about greenwashing and scandals about a year before the Republicans stepped into the void and started criticising it.’ What does the current ESG market look like? Amy thinks the capital is still flowing, but investors simply need to ‘pick the right team, the right technology, the right management.’ Shanu argues that the ESG trends and sustainability trends are still meaningful, and diversification of business models is key.  Follow the conversation on X, the platform we know as Twitter – we’re @theenergygang. And subscribe to the show so you don’t miss an episode.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.