By Kennedy Maize
Donald Trump’s voluntary war on oil-rich Iran is having what the fossilized gang in Washington never anticipated: a global surge in renewable energy, including in the U.S. 
The impact of the war on oil supplies and prices has produced a dramatic shift to wind and solar that may be permanent. Energy analyst Deepa Venkateswaran of Bernstein told the Financial Times that soaring energy prices offered a “short-term boost” to fossil fuel company revenues, but “in the long run, it’s going to create demand destruction” by “making the case for renewables and electrification even stronger than before.”
The FT wrote, “Investors are piling into clean power funds at the fastest pace in five years as the Iran war accelerates a global push for energy security and alternatives to oil and gas, boosting a slew of stocks linked to the transition away from fossil fuels.” The UK’s premier financial newspaper cited Morningstar data that “more than $3bn poured into global ETFs [exchange traded funds] linked to renewable energy in April bringing their total net assets to $43bn.”
Veteran energy reporter Ken Silverstein wrote in Forbes that “if this war proves anything, it’s that renewables are needed now more than ever—not just for climate and environmental reasons but to break up volatile supply chains and reduce the leverage of oil and gas states. For years, clean energy has been sold as a moral imperative. Now it is simply an economic and geopolitical necessity. It’s not about emissions. It’s about resilience and price stability.”
Reuters headlined its analysis “Sustainable Switch Climate Focus: Iran war ‘supercharging’ global shift to renewables” and commented, “Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the U.N.’s climate secretariat UNFCCC, told a meeting of government officials at the International Energy Agency in Paris that the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran is “supercharging” the world’s shift to renewable energy, as countries scramble to reduce their exposure to volatile oil and gas markets.”
Trump’s voluntary declaration of war — which hasn’t gone anywhere near what he and his Pentagon expected — has reinforced energy developments already underway despite his White House henchmen and Forestall Building fan boys fighting against wind and solar. In Arizona, for example, the giant public power system Salt River Project (SRP), with some two million customers and the largest electricity provider in the metro Phoenix region, on April 30 signed a deal with Florida’s NextEra Energy for 3,000-MW of solar generation by the end of 2034.
SRP said the deal “calls for the construction of 500 MW of solar per year from 2029 through 2034.” It also provides for 1,000-MW of battery storage through next year.
PV Magazine said solar generation for SRP “serves as a component of the utility strategy to retire coal generation by 2032.” The battery energy storage deal “is intended to manage the evening period when solar production drops and residential demand increases. By moving solar energy into later hours, Salt River Project intends to limit reliance on natural gas plants and maintain grid reliability during heat events.”
Wind power is also looking good in the U.S., again despite Trump’s disdain. Virginia-based Dominion Energy said its $11 billion, 2.6-GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project is on target for completion in June 2027. It has begun delivering power. In a May 1 quarterly earnings presentation, the company said the project, which had been slowed by an illegal Trump administration stop work order last year, is 75% complete.
Utility Dive reported that Dominion CEO Robert Blue told financial analysts the project “would generate approximately $5 billion in fuel savings for customers over the first 10 years of operations.” Blue said, “With no change to either LCOE [levelized cost of energy] or customer bill impacts, CVOW remains one of the most affordable sources of energy for our customers.”
Electrek reported last month, “The US wind industry bounced back in a big way in 2025, installing 8.2 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity – up 49% from the year before – according to Wood Mackenzie’s latest US Wind Energy Monitor report. And the momentum isn’t slowing down. Wood Mackenzie expects installations to reach around 11 GW in 2026, making it the strongest year for new wind buildout in five years.”
How permanent is the Iran war’s impact on the basics of world energy? Speaking at an international meeting last month, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, told The Guardian that the world’s “perception of risk and reliability will change. Governments will review their energy strategies. There will be a significant boost to renewables and nuclear power and a further shift towards a more electrified future….And this will cut into the main markets for oil.”
Birol said there is no going back: “The vase is broken, the damage is done – it will be very difficult to put the pieces back together. This will have permanent consequences for the global energy markets for years to come.”