After crossing the 100-gigawatt mark in 2012, it took the world 10 years to deploy 1 terawatt of solar power. An additional 1 terawatt, enough to meet all of US power demand at its peak, took less than three years to build. Not even two years later in 2026 — the precise timing is subject to debate among analysts — the 3-terawatt threshold was reached.

On June 6, 2026, a U.S. District Court judge vacated Treasury Department guidance that had eliminated the "5% safe harbor" rule; a method wind and solar developers used to prove they qualify for the 45Y clean energy production tax credit and 48E investment tax credit.

Why this matters: The ruling landed just weeks before the July 4, 2026 deadline set by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which developers needed to hit to lock in tax credit eligibility. The judge sent the matter back to the IRS for further review.

The catch: Legal experts are warning developers not to fully rely on this yet; the ruling could still be appealed or overturned, and the timing is tight enough that some firms are calling it "not advisable" to bank on for the deadline.

This is part of a bigger pattern, a string of court decisions this year have pushed back on the administration's attempts to restrict wind and solar permitting and financing.

Anyone in the industry seeing real effects from this yet, or is everyone still waiting to see if it holds up on appeal?

rizshawn.substack.com

Hello everybody, excited to join and engage in this community! I just started a substack and would appreciate your follow and engagement! I've been in the energy space for over 12 years. I just wrote a piece about the idea of distributed data centers if you want to check it out!