The indiscriminate economic impacts of COVID-19 are creating long-term implications for people and the planet. Ongoing research on the consequences of this evolving crisis predicts sharp declines for the US clean energy industry, leading to mass job losses and a slowdown in the growth of climate-saving clean energy technologies that could set us back years in the fight against climate change. This is not set in stone, however, and this novel crisis also presents an unprecedented opportunity to change the highly polluting US energy systems for the greener. According to research published by Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables in April, the significant economic disruptions caused by COVID-19 and virus mitigation measures are forecast to reduce global solar PV installations from an initial estimate of nearly 130 gigawatts to just over 106 gigawatts in 2020. The firm also estimates that US solar installations will decline 18% in 2020, from 19.6 gigawatts to 16 gigawatts, in what […]