Treasury and IRS release final rules and guidance on Investing in America Program to Spur Clean Energy Investments in Underserved Communities
Opportunity: Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit program
Announcement Type: Issuance of final rules and procedural guidance
Overview: The Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Program [48(e)] prioritizes the following goals:
increasing adoption of and access to renewable energy facilities in underserved and environmental justice communities
encouraging new market participants
providing substantial benefits to underserved communities and individuals who have been historically marginalized from economic opportunities and overburdened by environmental impacts
Established through the IRA, the program provides up to a 20-percentage point boost to the Investment Tax Credit for qualified solar or wind facilities in low-income communities. The program will advance the President’s Investing in America Agenda by lowering energy costs and providing breathing room for hard-working families, investing in good-paying clean energy jobs in low-income communities, and supporting small business growth.
DOE’s Office of Economic Impact and Diversity is administering the program in partnership with the Department of the Treasury and the IRS.
Amount: The Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit program will allocate 1.8 gigawatts of capacity available for the 2023 program across four categories of solar or wind facilities with maximum output of less than five megawatts, the IRS intends to allocate up to:
700 megawatts to facilities located in low-income communities
200 megawatts to facilities located on Indian land
200 megawatts to facilities that are part of federally-subsidized residential buildings, and
700 megawatts to facilities where at least 50 percent of the financial benefits of the electricity produced go to households with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty line or below 80 percent of area median gross income.
Eligible Applicants: qualified solar or wind facilities in low-income communities.
Key Dates: The application process for all four categories will open in Fall 2023 – depending on availability of capacity, applications for the 2023 program are expected to be accepted through early next year.
Awards will start to be made by the end of the year.
Key Links:
DOE Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Program
DOE Office of Economic Impact and Diversity
For a full list of currently available grant programs under the Infrastructure Law and other helpful tools, take a look at our Helpful Resources page.
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