RE+ 2025 Recap by Spark AI: The Era of Pragmatism

Last week, the Spark team attended RE+ 2025 in Las Vegas. With over 30,000 professionals spanning solar, storage, hydrogen, EV, and grid sectors, RE+ remains North America's largest clean energy event. This year's tone was more sober than in years past, but the energy was no less intense.

The Spark team ran a booth and spent three days in conversations with dozens of developers, industry veterans, suppliers, and partners. The caliber of attendees was impressive, and the conversations were refreshingly candid. Here are the key themes we observed:

Safe harboring crunch

Everyone is racing against the clock to start "physical work" on projects. The latest legislation requires wind and solar projects to begin construction by July 2026 to fully qualify for federal incentives. Projects starting after that date face a much earlier deadline: the end of 2027 to be placed in service.

IRS guidance in August 2025 tightened the rules further. Large projects over 1.5 MW must have commenced significant physical work (or met the old 5% expenditure safe harbor) by September 2, 2025 to lock in their tax credit status. After that date, simply spending 5% on equipment won't cut it for big projects; actual construction work is required.

The result: a frantic race to hit milestones. Developers are laser-focused on de-risking projects and breaking ground fast. As one insider told us, "The name of the game is identifying the risks that should terminate projects early.” Nobody wants to sink time into a project that is unlikely to succeed.

Portfolios for sale

Heavy deal activity was everywhere. Developers are selling projects and portfolios for a mix of reasons, including tighter capital and post-layoff belt-tightening. Many developers we spoke with admitted they're trying to offload at least part of their pipeline. It's officially a buyer's market now.

Slimmer developer presence, bigger supplier presence

Many development firms sent smaller crews this year. Tight budgets and full plates back home meant companies were selective in sending staff. In contrast, the presence of foreign suppliers and international attendees was extremely high. Walking the show floor, English was far from the only language being spoken loudly at booths. At times, it almost felt like we were in Shenzhen rather than Vegas.

AI everywhere, to the point of cliché

"AI for solar" has officially become an overused buzzword. The crowd's patience for empty AI branding is wearing thin. The smart startups are focusing on solving real problems rather than slapping AI onto everything. AI is now table stakes, not a differentiator.

Data centers: hot topic, little execution

This year's buzz centered on data centers and powering the explosion of AI and cloud computing loads. Yotta, a conference on digital infrastructure happening next door at the MGM Grand, attracted many of the same attendees as RE+. Interest in tying renewable projects to energy-hungry data centers is through the roof, and for good reason. Data centers already consume over 4% of U.S. electricity, and that could triple to 12% by 2028 (a staggering ~580 billion kWh) as AI usage surges.

Many developers are exploring co-location strategies — building solar or natural gas directly to supply new server farms. Appetite is massive, but execution is scarce. Very few developers have the offtake connections or land positions to make it happen.

Tailwinds: demand, not policy

The days of policy sugar highs from the IRA are behind us. The new reality is simple: power demand is exploding, and it has to come from somewhere. Business is forging ahead regardless of whether extra subsidies are on the table. Gigawatts of new generation are needed to meet America's booming electricity needs.

The companies thriving now are the ones attaching themselves directly to MW-scale demand, whether or not tax credits pencil perfectly.

The takeaway: The industry is moving from a policy-driven boom to a more pragmatic, demand-driven phase. The focus is on the basics: getting steel in the ground where power is needed. The era of easy money and blanket subsidies may be over, but the need for energy isn't going anywhere.

Hope you enjoyed this recap of our personal takeaways from RE+ 2025. It was a fascinating week in Vegas, and it left us optimistic about the future, even if we have to work a little harder (and smarter) to get there.

Racing against safe harboring deadlines? Spark helps developers identify project risks and understand AHJs in seconds, not weeks. When every month counts toward hitting milestones, speed wins. Book a demo to see how we're helping developers de-risk projects faster.