Congress Must Not Ignore Residential Solar Tax Credit Inequities
Courtesy of RMI.
By Ryan Shea & Russell Mendell
Through the Justice40 Initiative, President Biden has made clear that bringing clean energy benefits to marginalized and low-income communities is a priority. Right now, low-income households experience up to three times higher energy burden (the percent of household income spent on energy costs) than high-income households. Rooftop solar is one of many important solutions available to help alleviate this burden. When financed, it can immediately lower household energy bills with no money down in many parts of the country.
Unfortunately, rooftop solar has disproportionately benefited high-income and White residents. While low-and moderate-income (LMI) residents make up 43 percent of the US population, only 21 percent of residential solar installations benefited these communities in 2019. On top of that, nearly half of communities with a majority of Black residents did not have a single solar system installed.
This disparity is exacerbated by the inequitable design of existing tax credits that incentivize residential solar. The solar investment tax credit (ITC) provides minimal advantage for those with little to no federal income tax — and thus have little use for a tax break.
In its version of the reconciliation bill, the US House of Representatives has included a direct pay option under section 48 (ITC 48) for business- and utility-scale renewables. This would allow entities without sufficient tax liabilities to take full, direct advantage of the ITC and accelerate renewable deployment. But, importantly, the current bill language does not extend the same direct pay provisions under section 25 (ITC 25D) for residential solar.
It is essential for Congress to change ITC 25D from a tax break to direct pay to help bring clean energy to more Americans, particularly LMI Americans. Specifically, the change would:
- allow substantially more homeowners to use the tax credit,
- further enable clean energy sources to help alleviate LMI energy burden, and
- bring solar jobs to LMI communities.
Residential Direct Pay Makes the Tax Credit Available to Substantially More Households
The House’s currently proposed version of the residential tax credit under section 25D can offset the upfront cost of a typical solar photovoltaic system by around $5,000 (assuming $3.30 per watt installed and a 5 kW system). That discount would be far out of reach for almost all LMI households, and even many middle-income households, given that their tax burdens often fall below that threshold.
Around 7 in 10 American tax filers would not have enough annual tax liability to receive the full ITC 25D benefit, according to 2018 data from the IRS. And the more than 4 in 10 Americans that do not have any federal income tax liability at all would see zero benefit.
Consider a married couple with one child making a combined income of $60,000 per year (around 70 percent of the median family household income). Given their annual federal tax liability of around $1,500, they would see only 30 percent of the House’s currently proposed residential solar tax credit in the year that they purchased the system. The inequities are even starker for low-income households. If that same household made $45,000, they would likely not receive any benefit.
While the current ITC 25D does have a carryforward provision that allows taxpayers to apply the rest of the credit in future years, most homeowners do not realize this complicated provision. Even with this policy in place, LMI households likely cannot wait years to receive the full amount, and the bottom half of earners still receive little to no benefit from the incentive.
Residential Direct Pay Can Help LMI Residents Reduce Their Energy Burden
Changing the ITC 25D from a tax break to direct pay would not only lower the upfront cost of solar for residents, but it could also be the catalyst for LMI homeowners in many states to lower their energy costs. For the more than 100 million American households without the tax liability to utilize the full ITC 25D, changing this benefit to direct pay could be the difference between rooftop solar lowering or increasing their bill.
For LMI households without any federal tax liability, an average 20-year rooftop solar loan would reduce their energy burden in just 19 states under the current policy, according to an analysis using RMI’s forthcoming Residential Solar Calculator. Direct pay for ITC 25D would bring this number to 38, doubling the number of states where families below the federal income tax threshold would be able to use a solar loan to save money with no money down.
This change would also decrease utility bills by around 20 percent. This could significantly accelerate the solar market in these 19 additional states and bring the co-benefits to more LMI communities.
Residential Direct Pay Is Essential to Bring Solar Jobs to LMI Communities
By modifying the ITC 25D to direct pay and opening up the solar market to a previously untapped portion of the country, the solar industry can also bring economic development and workforce benefits to LMI communities.
If LMI communities could match the levels of annual rooftop solar installations that are currently seen in high-income neighborhoods, an additional 1.2 GW of residential solar economic activity could take place in LMI communities each year. This would generate nearly $4 billion more in economic activity (assuming $3.30 per watt installed) and over 26,400 more jobs each year (assuming 22 residential solar jobs per MW). To realize this full impact, solar job training will also be essential to ensure a smoother, more equitable transition to cleaner energy sources, while maximizing economic benefits.
It’s Time for Congress to Take Action
Right now, Congress has a once-in-a-decade opportunity to design equitable climate policy that will ensure all communities can access the benefits of renewable energy.
Fortunately, momentum is building. The Residential Renewables for All coalition recently formed to advocate for this change to the residential solar tax credit, which 25 US Senators have urged leadership to include in reconciliation. The coalition includes more than 350 environmental justice advocates, environmental justice organizations, and renewable energy businesses.
For too long, the ITC 25D has made solar deployment more inequitable. To level the playing field and reduce the energy burden for lower-income Americans, all households should have the same opportunity to access residential solar incentives. This simple change can lead to more equitable solar deployment and bring the economic, workforce, health, and emissions benefits to the communities that need them most.
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On today’s fleet-focused episode of Quick Charge, we talk about a hot topic in today’s trucking industry called, “the messy middle,” explore some of the ways legacy truck brands are working to reduce fuel consumption and increase freight efficiency. PLUS: we’ve got ReVolt Motors’ CEO and founder Gus Gardner on-hand to tell us why he thinks his solution is better.
You know, for some people.
We’ve also got a look at the Kenworth Supertruck 2 concept truck, revisit the Revoy hybrid tandem trailer, and even plug a great article by CCJ’s Jeff Seger, who is asking some great questions over there. All this and more – enjoy!
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Thanks to Trump’s repeated executive order attacks on US clean energy policy, nearly $8 billion in investments and 16 new large-scale factories and other projects were cancelled, closed, or downsized in Q1 2025.
The $7.9 billion in investments withdrawn since January are more than three times the total investments cancelled over the previous 30 months, according to nonpartisan policy group E2’s latest Clean Economy Works monthly update.
However, companies continue to invest in the US renewable sector. Businesses in March announced 10 projects worth more than $1.6 billion for new solar, EV, and grid and transmission equipment factories across six states. That includes Tesla’s plan to invest $200 million in a battery factory near Houston that’s expected to create at least 1,500 new jobs. Combined, the projects are expected to create at least 5,000 new permanent jobs if completed.
Michael Timberlake of E2 said, “Clean energy companies still want to invest in America, but uncertainty over Trump administration policies and the future of critical clean energy tax credits are taking a clear toll. If this self-inflicted and unnecessary market uncertainty continues, we’ll almost certainly see more projects paused, more construction halted, and more job opportunities disappear.”
March’s 10 new projects bring the overall number of major clean energy projects tracked by E2 to 390 across 42 states and Puerto Rico. Companies have said they plan to invest more than $133 billion in these projects and hire 122,000 permanent workers.
Since Congress passed federal clean energy tax credits in August 2022, 34 clean energy projects have been cancelled, downsized, or shut down altogether, wiping out more than 15,000 jobs and scrapping $10 billion in planned investment, according to E2 and Atlas Public Policy.
However, in just the first three months of 2025, after Trump started rolling back clean energy policies, 13 projects were scrapped or scaled back, totaling more than $5 billion. That includes Bosch pulling the plug on its $200 million hydrogen fuel cell plant in South Carolina and Freyr Battery canceling its $2.5 billion battery factory in Georgia.
Republican-led districts have reaped the biggest rewards from Biden’s clean energy tax credits, but they’re also taking the biggest hits under Trump. So far, more than $6 billion in projects and over 10,000 jobs have been wiped out in GOP districts alone.
And the stakes are high. Through March, Republican districts have claimed 62% of all clean energy project announcements, 71% of the jobs, and a staggering 83% of the total investment.
A full map and list of announcements can be seen on E2’s website here. E2 says it will incorporate cancellation data in the coming weeks.
Read more: FREYR kills plans to build a $2.6 billion battery factory in Georgia
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Tesla has reportedly delayed the launch of its new “affordable EV,” which is believed to be a stripped-down Model Y, in the United States.
Last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a pivotal decision that altered the automaker’s direction for the next few years.
The CEO canceled Tesla’s plan to build a cheaper new “$25,000 vehicle” on its next-generation “unboxed” vehicle platform to focus solely on the Robotaxi, utilizing the latest technology, and instead, Tesla plans to build more affordable EVs, though more expensive than previously announced, on its existing Model Y platform.
Musk has believed that Tesla is on the verge of solving self-driving technology for the last few years, and because of that, he believes that a $25,000 EV wouldn’t make sense, as self-driving ride-hailing fleets would take over the lower end of the car market.
However, he has been consistently wrong about Tesla solving self-driving, which he first said would happen in 2019.
In the meantime, Tesla’s sales have been decreasing and the automaker had to throttle down production at all its manufacturing facilities.
That’s why, instead of building new, more affordable EVs on new production lines, Musk decided to greenlight new vehicles built on the same production lines as Model 3 and Model Y – increasing the utilization rate of its existing manufacturing lines.
Those vehicles have been described as “stripped-down Model Ys” with fewer features and cheaper materials, which Tesla said would launch in “the first half of 2025.”
Reuters is now reporting that Tesla is seeing a delay of “at least months” in launching the first new “lower-cost Model Y” in the US:
Tesla has promised affordable vehicles beginning in the first half of the year, offering a potential boost to flagging sales. Global production of the lower-cost Model Y, internally codenamed E41, is expected to begin in the United States, the sources said, but it would be at least months later than Tesla’s public plan, they added, offering a range of revised targets from the third quarter to early next year.
Along with the delay, the report also claims that Tesla aims to produce 250,000 units of the new model in the US by 2026. This would match Tesla’s currently reduced production capacity at Gigafactory Texas and Fremont factory.
The report follows other recent reports coming from China that also claimed Tesla’s new “affordable EVs” are “stripped-down Model Ys.”
The Chinese report references the new version of the Model 3 that Tesla launched in Mexico last year. It’s a regular Model 3, but Tesla removed some features, like the second-row screen, ambient lighting strip, and it uses fabric interior material rather than Tesla’s usual vegan leather.
The new Reuters report also said that Tesla planned to follow the stripped-down Model Y with a similar Model 3.
In China, the new vehicle was expected to come in the second half of 2025, and Tesla was waiting to see the impact of the updated Model Y, which launched earlier this year.
Electrek’s Take
These reports lend weight to what we have been saying for a year now: Tesla’s “more affordable EVs” will essentially be stripped-down versions of the Model Y and Model 3.
While they will enable Tesla to utilize its currently underutilized factories more efficiently, they will also cannibalize its existing Model 3 and Y lineup and significantly reduce its already dwindling gross margins.
I think Musk will sell the move as being good in the long term because it will allow Tesla to deploy more vehicles, which will later generate more revenue through the purchase of the “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) package.
However, that has been his argument for years, and it has yet to pan out as FSD still requires driver supervision and likely will for years to come, resulting in an extremely low take-rate for the $8,000 package.
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