Over the past two decades, homeowners have been able to claim thousands of dollars in federal tax credits to help compensate for high costs to go to solar energy. Things were supposed to remain this way until 2034. However, this week, the US House of Representatives suggested suddenly ending incentives at the end of the year. If this idea survives the House of Representatives and the Senate passes, it can raise the calculus and economic integration account of operating your home with the sun.
“It would put solar energy out of millions of people,” said Glenn Brand, Director of Politics and Call at Solar United NeighBors, a non -profit organization that encourages technology adoption. “What the house did is the status of ordinary Americans in a really difficult place. They mainly say they will not help people with high energy costs.”
The first solar tax credits entered the country in 1978, but it was It is allowed to separate in 1985When President Ronald Reagan was in office. In 2005, however, another Republican – President George W. Bush – revived them. The lawmakers have extended the incentives and its infections since then, mostly with the law to reduce inflation for the year 2022, or the Irish Republican Army, which determined the credit In 30 percent of the system cost until 2032Before getting rid of two years.
The average cost of the US solar system in the United States is now a little north by $ 28,000, according to Zoe Gaston, the main analyst of a residential solar in the power consultant Wood McKenzi. This means that tax credit will be about $ 8,500.
On Tuesday, the Committee of Roads and Means in the House of Representatives He issued the preliminary reconciliation proposal This would retract large areas of the Irish Republican Army, including support for solar energy. The so -called 25D tax credit is still applying to the systems that are installed this year, after which it will completely disappear.
Without tax credits, solar energy systems may still be logical in places that get a lot of sunlight or have high electricity prices, or both, but the recovery period is likely to grow. For other people, mathematics may not work at all.
“We expect sales and installation to rise this year, followed by the market shrinking,” said Juston. “If the owner of the house is thinking about solar energy and can bear it,” the time will be the right time. ”
25D credit is not the only relevant tax breakdown under threat. There is another, 48E balance, available for companies that install solar energy on homes where the resident creates equipment or enters the energy purchase agreement. This allows companies to reduce what customers receive. According to Gaston, more than half of the residential facilities now follow the third -party ownership model.
Instead of eliminating 48E, the house prefers restrictions on where the material comes in the photovoltaic panels. While experts are still sorting exactly what the proposed language means, it generally aims to prevent the participation of “worrying foreign entities” – including those in China, where the vast majority of solar ingredients are made.
“He places a commitment to the stabilizer or developer to track the supply chain in a completely impossible manner,” said Sean Gallagher, the first vice president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, a commercial group. He said this could make credit 48e actually impossible in 2026.
Gaston said that the current home language can push people at least towards the third -party ownership options. But when Wood Mackeenzie performed an analysis, before the House of Representatives draft, he went to gradually get rid of the credits by 2028, he still expects a 30 percent decrease in the fixed residential capacity by the end of the contract.
“It will be destroyed for companies, their employees and customers,” Gallaghar said. “It will kill an industry that supports hundreds of thousands of workers and tens of billions of dollars in investment every year.”
The home step is not the only opposite facing the solar energy industry. For example, California highlighted, for example, the amount that homeowners can earn a network selling power, making solar energy less profit. Even before Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, companies They started allowing employees He goes. More workers’ demobilization Follow.
Some Republicans have admitted the role played by the Energy Tax Approvals and their provinces. Twenty -one members of the House of Representatives signed a message For roads and means, President Jason Smith expresses their concern about “sabotage changes on the energy tax structure in our nation.” He also wrote four Republican Senators To the leader of the majority John Thon urges a “targeted and practical approach” to any changes.
“This will operate what the Senate is doing,” said Brand, on the future of solar credits. He believes that it is unlikely that the parliament’s proposal will become a law in its current form and it is optimistic that the decline will be corrected. “This is a piece that the Senate can get.”
Jacqueline Bliss, a professor who is looking for energy and environmental economy at the College of Management of the Islamic Institute of Management, said. She said that the fixed back and forth in politics makes it very difficult for companies to plan for the future.
“The volatility of politics is in fact my greatest occupy,” said Bliss. “The uncertainty in politics can begin to freeze investment, increase costs and damage market confidence.”