World on the Brink
While the United States is missing out on the global boom in electricity-sector investments that is being driven by electrification, AI, and other factors, China is cashing in.
Global electricity sector investment totaled $1.5 trillion in 2025 and is expected to continue to grow, with 86% of projected energy-sector capital spending from 2026 to 2035 occurring outside the United States. Yet, U.S. exports of electricity generation equipment are down 52 percent from their 2012 level. On other hand, China’s share of global exports of electricity generation equipment rose from 15 to 22 percentage points from 2007 to 2025.
Silverado Policy Accelerator’s new report, Electrifying U.S. Exports: Overcoming Barriers to Electricity Sector Goods and Services Exports, examines why U.S. companies are losing ground in the global market and how U.S. policy intervention can reduce these barriers and accelerate export growth:
- Subsidized pricing and structural overcapacity in China put U.S. producers at a significant competitive disadvantage.
- Localization policies can shift production out of the United States and permanently reduce U.S. export opportunities.
- Massive Chinese government-backed financing can steer overseas electricity projects toward Chinese developers, contractors, equipment suppliers, and technology providers.
- Tariffs, U.S. capacity constraints, and supply chain dependencies create additional barriers to U.S. firms competing abroad
The report outlines a number of actions that Congress and the Administration can take to reduce these barriers to U.S. exports, including leveraging trade agreement negotiations to enhance export opportunities and counter non-market practices, and extending U.S. export financing so that U.S. manufacturers can compete more effectively with foreign firms in global markets.
The global electricity buildout is moving forward. The question is whether U.S. companies will be in a position to supply it, and whether the United States will capture the jobs, industrial capacity, and strategic benefits that come with doing so.
