The infrastructure bill that cleared a Senate hurdle last week included some big spending for clean energy, like electric buses, hydrogen power, and charging stations for electric vehicles. However, some clean energy sectors want more. 

Before installing a new electric car charging station, Jonathan Levy said his company EVgo, needs to know there’s plenty of demand.

“We don’t want to overbuild the charging infrastructure and not have the vehicles to be using it,” he said.

That’s where those federal dollars would come in – to pay for new charging stations in, say rural communities. Paul Bledsoe with the Progressive Policy Institute said new infrastructure would also get more EVs on the road. 

“That’s really the only thing holding back people from buying electric vehicles now, is concerns over charging,” he said.

The bill also funds pilot projects like carbon capture. But it doesn’t do as much for more mature clean energy technology.

“We had our time in the sun as a niche kind of science experiment,” explained Abigail Ross Hopper with the Solar Energy Industries Association. But that’s over and what Ross Hopper said what the solar industry needs to do now is “deploy, deploy, deploy.”   

What would help get more solar panels out there, she added, are permanent tax incentives for homeowners and businesses.