The House draft budget kills the 30% residential solar tax credit

The House’s “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” (yes, it’s really called that) has set an accelerated expiration date of December 31, 2025, for the 30% residential solar tax credit – nearly a decade ahead of its originally planned end date.

Is this the end of the residential solar tax credit?

The point of this giant bill is to extend the expiring Trump-era tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which would cost around $4 trillion over the next decade.

The Republican-majority House Ways and Means Committee proposes terminating section 25D on page 221, which would kill residential solar tax credits at the end of this year, almost a decade ahead of its original end date of December 31, 2034.

(Utility-scale solar’s tax credits remain in place through 2028 before a phase-down to 80% in 2029, 60% in 2030, 40% in 2031, and zero in 2032. That’s earlier than what’s currently law.)

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The original plan included a gradual reduction in residential solar tax credits; this new compressed timeframe leaves no time for the solar industry to prepare. “If Congress eliminates the ITC without a reasonable phase-down, that’s obviously going to cause immediate disruption within the solar industry,” Aaron Nichols with Exact Solar told EnergySage. 

The tax credit is known as the Investment Tax Credit (ITC), and it provides homeowners with a tax credit of 30% of the full cost of their residential solar installation. It was part of the Biden administration’s flagship Inflation Reduction Act.

The House Ways and Means Committee will mark up and then vote on the bill today, and then it will be sent to the entire House of Representatives. It will then be sent to the Senate, which has until July 4 to amend, reject, or pass the bill. 

The bill also proposes that the EV and energy efficiency tax credits be killed.

Electrek’s Take

It’s not hyperbole to say that this would be one of the worst decisions the Republican Party would ever make for the US economy. Nothing about this makes America great.

That’s why Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) released a statement yesterday saying that “at a time when billions of dollars are being invested in states that overwhelmingly voted for President Trump, this proposed legislation will effectively dismantle the most successful industrial onshoring effort in US history.”

And Charlie Hadlow, president and COO of EnergySage, told Electrek that “eliminating the 25D tax credit would be a step backward for American families and small businesses. President Trump has emphasized the need for more domestic energy sources, not fewer, and this credit plays a key role in expanding access to reliable, affordable, homegrown power.”

If this reckless proposal to kill the 30% residential solar tax credit passes, it’s going to raise homeowners’ energy bills, kill jobs, kneecap the solar industry, and hurt small businesses. It will be more of an uphill battle to create a more resilient grid as energy demand skyrockets. It’s going to be much more difficult to compete with China. It makes it harder to reduce emissions (not that Trump’s party cares about that).

Nothing about this budget proposal makes sense. And the thing that makes the least sense is that most of the pain will be felt in red states, where most of the solar industry’s growth is happening.

So, will some Republican lawmakers have the guts to stand up for their constituents? I guess we’ll find out.

Read more: Home solar prices just hit record lows – and storage is even cheaper

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