The US Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) recently released a report showing the benefit of the IRA’s clean energy tax incentives for consumers. More than 3.4 million families claimed $8.4 billion in IRA-enabled tax credits in 2023 alone. With IRA funds starting to make their way into the homes of Americans, the deep impact of the bill is beginning to enter popular conversation. NYT climate reporter Nadja Popovich’s latest article, “Where (and How) Americans Are Taking Advantage of Clean Energy Tax Credits,” breaks down the Treasury’s data on IRA tax credits.
Popovich notes that the kinds of credits claimed varied greatly by geographical region. In the Southwest and Florida, clean energy tax credits for technology like solar panels, wind turbines, and other renewable energy were the most popular, while the Northeast and Midwest favored energy efficiency tax credits used for things like more efficient HVAC systems or insulation. Due to the IRA, households can claim an Investment Tax Credit (ITC) that covers up to 30% of rooftop solar and battery storage costs. This large tax credit is catalyzing mass adoption of solar in the Southwest, particularly in California and Texas—more than 750,000 households claimed solar tax credits in 2023. Together with the Bureau of Land Management’s push to develop solar energy on public land (also funded partly by IRA) in these hot, sunny states, these tax credits make the Southwest a clean solar energy powerhouse.
While the IRA’s clean energy and energy efficiency tax credits are making real changes, they’re not without their shortcomings. As Popovich quotes an energy economist, tax credits “operate through the tax code, which favors the rich.” This means that these tax credits are overwhelmingly claimed by wealthy homeowners, who both have the legal ability to renovate their homes—something renters cannot do—and can afford the multi-thousand-dollar upfront price tags for equipment such as solar panels, battery storage, and heat pumps—something that low- to moderate-income homeowners cannot afford. In effect, renters and low- to moderate-income homeowners have difficulty accessing these tax credits: Popovich notes that “nearly half of the households that claimed at least one of the tax credits had incomes of less than $100,000. But about 75 percent of all tax filers had incomes under $100,000 in 2023, meaning the credits still disproportionately benefited wealthier taxpayers.”