A major wind turbine supplier in Pensacola is pausing expansion plans and scaling back expected hiring after the passage of a sweeping federal energy bill that rolls back long-term support for the clean energy industry.
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Jupiter Bach, a Denmark-based company that manufactures nacelle covers and other components for wind turbines, currently employs about 240 people at its Gulf Coast facility. The company supplies components directly to GE Vernova, whose nearby plant assembles complete nacelles for wind energy projects across the country. The company had planned to grow its local workforce to more than 320 employees next year.
"Now we see a more flat year," said plant manager Sean Guidry.
The policy shift comes after President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill into law earlier this month. The legislation significantly shortens the eligibility window for wind and solar tax credits, which were previously locked in through 2032 under the Inflation Reduction Act. Projects must now break ground by 2026 and enter service by 2027 to receive full tax benefits.
Those credits helped drive more than $70 million in investment at GE Vernova’s nacelle plant in Pensacola since 2023, as well as an additional $5 million that Jupiter Bach invested in its own operations nearby.
Guidry said his company had planned for an additional $1.2 million of investments to their Pensacola plant this year.
"Now those are in question," he said.
Guidry said the new policy introduces a level of uncertainty that’s already complicating long-term planning.
"It’s more about the world of uncertainty than it is order catalog," he said. "Now we’re kind of focused on how to find our way around it."
GE Vernova did not agree to an interview before publication. However, in April, CEO Scott Strazik spoke at a ribbon-cutting for the company’s new customer experience center in Pensacola and emphasized the facility’s importance to GE’s broader wind business.
"This is our largest site that we have in our wind business," Strazik told the crowd. "That’s a $10 billion revenue business, in which this is our single biggest location. So it just matters a lot for us. And we’re committed to you."
At the time, Strazik said the facility had the capacity to more than double its output and could one day employ more than 1,000 people.
In addition to compressing the window for clean energy credits, the new law also introduces restrictions on sourcing components from so-called "foreign entities of concern," including China. That provision, combined with rising tariffs, is adding pressure to manufacturers like Jupiter Bach that rely on global supply chains for smaller parts.
Guidry said China has emerged as a dominant global supplier of low-cost steel components, making it difficult for U.S. manufacturers to compete on price.
"These things that we see from tariffs are essentially just going to draw down on earnings potential," he added.
He said those costs are starting to reach consumers as tariff-affected goods work through inventories and hit store shelves.
Meanwhile, GE Vernova’s growing “repowering” business—which involves retrofitting older turbines—may help sustain some local demand, but Guidry said it won’t insulate suppliers like Jupiter Bach from the broader slowdown.
"Repower does insulate a little bit," he said, "... but it’s minor for us."
Together, GE Vernova, Jupiter Bach, and fellow supplier BlueWind Technology (which declined to comment for this story) anchor a clean energy cluster that local officials say is often overlooked. The sector supports more than 2,000 jobs in the region, including positions tied to port operations and logistics.
"We’re like one of the best-kept secrets in Pensacola," Guidry said.
He urged policymakers to view the wind energy sector not through a partisan lens, but as a key part of the U.S. manufacturing base and a strategic asset in the global energy transition.
"We should be looked at more in the light of energy independence, manufacturing jobs in the United States," he said.
Guidry also warned that without reliable federal support for energy infrastructure, the U.S. could lose ground in fast-growing global industries that depend on abundant, low-cost electricity, like artificial intelligence.
"I don’t want us to beat ourselves up... and end up sending the AI companies over there," he said, referring to China, "because they have the energy to support."
