IRA Renewable Energy Tax Credits: Closures, Deadlines, and Transfers

The Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits that are still available in 2026 are almost entirely on the commercial side: the technology-neutral clean electricity credits under Sections 45Y and 48E, the clean hydrogen production credit under Section 45V, and a short list of related manufacturing and carbon capture credits. For homeowners and car buyers, nearly everything has closed. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, terminated the residential solar credit, the home energy efficiency credit, and both new and used clean vehicle credits ahead of their original schedules, and it put a hard 2026 deadline on wind and solar construction starts.¹

What follows is a credit-by-credit map of what you can still claim, what expired, and the deadlines that matter now.

Status at a Glance

Residential Clean Energy Credit (Section 25D): closed. Installations completed after December 31, 2025 do not qualify.
Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit (Section 25C): closed. Property placed in service after December 31, 2025 does not qualify.
New and Used Clean Vehicle Credits (Sections 30D and 25E): closed for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025.
Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit (Section 45W): closed on the same September 30, 2025 date.
Alternative Fuel Refueling Property Credit (Section 30C): available through June 30, 2026 only.
Clean Electricity Production and Investment Credits (Sections 45Y and 48E): available, with a July 5, 2026 construction-start deadline for wind and solar.
Clean Hydrogen Production Credit (Section 45V): available, with new foreign entity restrictions.
Direct pay and credit transferability: available for the surviving commercial credits.

Residential Credits Are Closed

The Section 25D residential clean energy credit covered 30 percent of the cost of solar panels, battery storage, small wind, geothermal heat pumps, and fuel cells. It was originally scheduled to run at 30 percent through 2032. Under the OBBBA, no credit is allowed for expenditures made after December 31, 2025.²

The timing rule is strict. The IRS treats a Section 25D expenditure as made when the original installation is completed, so a project that was under contract in 2025 but finished in 2026 gets nothing. If your equipment was installed on or before December 31, 2025, you can still claim the credit on your 2025 return using Form 5695.³ The credit is nonrefundable but any unused portion carries forward.⁴

The Section 25C credit for energy efficiency upgrades ended on the same date. It had covered 30 percent of costs for heat pumps, windows, doors, insulation, and home energy audits, capped at $1,200 for most improvements and $2,000 for heat pumps and biomass equipment.⁵ Improvements placed in service during 2025 can still be claimed on the 2025 return; nothing installed in 2026 qualifies.

Clean Vehicle Credits Are Closed

The $7,500 new clean vehicle credit (Section 30D), the $4,000 used clean vehicle credit (Section 25E), and the commercial clean vehicle credit (Section 45W) all terminated for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025.⁶

There is one narrow carve-out. If you entered a binding written contract and made a payment on or before September 30, 2025, you can still claim the credit even if the vehicle was placed in service later. A payment includes a nominal down payment or a trade-in.² Without that pre-cutoff paper trail, no credit is available.

EV Charger and Refueling Property Credit: A Six-Month Window

The Section 30C alternative fuel refueling property credit is the only consumer-facing IRA incentive still open in 2026, and only until June 30, 2026.²

For homeowners, it covers up to 30 percent of qualifying refueling equipment installed at a principal residence, capped at $1,000. For businesses, the base credit is 6 percent of depreciable costs up to $100,000 per item, rising to 30 percent when prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements are met.⁷ The property has to sit in an eligible census tract, generally a low-income community or a non-urban area where at least 10 percent of census blocks fall outside designated urban zones. If your address does not qualify, this credit does not help you.

Commercial Clean Electricity Credits (Sections 45Y and 48E)

For facilities placed in service after December 31, 2024, the original Section 45 and 48 credits were replaced by the technology-neutral clean electricity production credit (Section 45Y) and clean electricity investment credit (Section 48E). Any facility that generates electricity at a greenhouse gas emissions rate of zero or less can qualify.⁸

Developers pick one credit or the other. Section 48E is a one-time investment credit based on a percentage of capital cost. Section 45Y pays per kilowatt-hour generated and sold over ten years. You cannot claim both on the same project. Projects that began construction before 2025 still fall under the legacy Section 45 and 48 regime.

Wind and Solar: A July 2026 Construction Deadline

The OBBBA singled out wind and solar. To receive the full 45Y or 48E credit, a wind or solar facility must either begin construction before July 5, 2026, or begin producing electricity before January 1, 2028.¹ Miss both, and eligibility is gone.

Other zero-emissions technologies have a longer runway. Nuclear, geothermal, and hydropower facilities must begin construction before 2033 to receive the full credit.

Prevailing Wage and Apprenticeship

The gap between the full credit and the base credit is large: 30 percent versus 6 percent on the investment side, and the full per-kilowatt-hour rate versus one-fifth of it on the production side. Getting the full rate requires paying prevailing wages to all laborers and mechanics working on construction, and continuing to pay those rates for any repair or alteration work through the first ten years of operation.⁹ Rates are set by the Department of Labor for each locality.

The apprenticeship rule requires that at least 15 percent of total labor hours on any project that began construction in 2024 or later be performed by qualified apprentices from registered programs. Shortfalls can be cured by paying per-hour penalties rather than automatically forfeiting the full credit.

Bonus Adders for Commercial Projects

Three bonus adders can stack on top of the 45Y or 48E credit and push the effective rate above 50 percent.

The domestic content bonus adds 10 percentage points to the investment credit for projects built with domestically produced steel, iron, and manufactured components. All structural steel and iron must be U.S.-produced, and a required percentage of manufactured components must be of domestic origin.¹⁰ The OBBBA also added foreign entity restrictions that can affect sourcing choices.

The energy community bonus adds 10 percentage points on the investment credit (or a 10 percent increase on the production credit) for projects sited in brownfields, census tracts near recently closed coal mines or coal plants, or statistical areas where fossil fuel employment is at least 0.17 percent of direct employment and unemployment meets or exceeds the national average.¹¹

The low-income community bonus adds 10 or 20 percentage points, but only for solar or wind facilities under 5 megawatts and only through an annual allocation process capped at 1.8 gigawatts. The 2026 program year opened February 2, 2026 with an initial 30-day equal-treatment window.¹²

Clean Hydrogen Production Credit (Section 45V)

The Section 45V credit for producing clean hydrogen remains available with no announced termination date. It pays up to $3.00 per kilogram of hydrogen at the top tier, with lower amounts for higher-emissions production and no credit at all for hydrogen produced above 4 kg CO2e per kg.¹³ Meeting prevailing wage and apprenticeship standards is again the difference between the full credit and one-fifth of it. The OBBBA extended foreign entity restrictions to this credit as well.

Direct Pay and Credit Transferability

Two mechanisms let entities that cannot use credits against their own tax liability still benefit from them. Both apply only to the surviving commercial credits.

Under Section 6417, tax-exempt organizations, state and local governments, tribal governments, and Alaska Native Corporations can elect to receive the credit as a cash payment from the IRS.¹⁴ This is how nonprofits, municipalities, and school districts monetize clean energy credits.

Under Section 6418, taxable businesses can sell their credits to an unrelated buyer for cash. The seller does not include the proceeds in gross income, and the buyer cannot deduct the purchase price.¹⁵ Transferable credits include Section 45Y, 48E, 45V, the Section 45Q carbon capture credit, and the Section 45X advanced manufacturing credit.

Both mechanisms require pre-filing registration with the IRS to receive a registration number that must appear on the tax return. The IRS advises registering at least 120 days before the return’s due date. Registration cannot happen before the start of the tax period when the credit is earned, so timing has to be planned deliberately.¹⁶

1
Congressional Research Service. IRA Tax Credit Repeal in the FY2025 Reconciliation Law Part 1
2
Internal Revenue Service. FAQs for Modification of Sections 25C, 25D, 25E, 30C, 30D, 45L, 45W, and 179D Under Public Law 119-21
3
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 5695 (2025)
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 25D – Residential Clean Energy Credit
5
Internal Revenue Service. Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit
6
Internal Revenue Service. Clean Vehicle Tax Credits
7
Alternative Fuels Data Center. Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Tax Credit
8
Federal Register. Section 45Y Clean Electricity Production Credit and Section 48E Clean Electricity Investment Credit
9
Federal Register. Prevailing Wage and Apprenticeship Initial Guidance Under Section 45(b)(6)(B)(ii) and Other Substantially Similar Provisions
10
Internal Revenue Service. Domestic Content Bonus Credit
11
U.S. Department of the Treasury. Energy Communities
12
Internal Revenue Service. Clean Electricity Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Amount Program
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 45V – Credit for Production of Clean Hydrogen
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6417 – Elective Payment of Applicable Credits
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6418 – Transfer of Certain Credits
16
Internal Revenue Service. Register for Elective Payment or Transfer of Credits