Energy Tax Credits Still Alive in 2026: The Full List

By SolarCostData Data Desk · Reviewed September 2026 · Corrections log

If you are planning a solar, EV, heat-pump or battery purchase in 2026, the tax picture changed dramatically in 2025. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, accelerated the end of nearly every consumer clean-energy credit. Most online guides — and most installer sales pitches — still quote credits that no longer exist. Here is what is actually true for 2026, credit by credit.

Laid out on a timeline, the 2025 law reads less like a phase-down than a wall. Every consumer-facing credit ended within a fifteen-month window — the last of them, the §30C charger credit, on June 30, 2026:

Quick reference: what’s dead, what’s alive

Is the federal solar tax credit still available in 2026?

Primary source: IRS, Residential Clean Energy Credit . Claimed on Form 5695 .

The 30% residential credit (§25D ) ended for any system placed in service after December 31, 2025. What matters is when the system is switched on, not when you signed — a contract from 2025 that energizes in 2026 does not qualify. For a 2026 cash or loan buyer, the federal credit is $0.

This is the single most important fact on this site: never assume a 2026 owner-buyer gets 30%. It changes payback math significantly — which is exactly why our 2026 solar savings calculator sets the federal credit to $0.

The one exception: a lease or power-purchase agreement (PPA). There, a company owns the panels on your roof and claims the surviving commercial credit (§48E ) — worth roughly 30% to them. A good provider passes part of that saving on through a lower rate. For solar, that commercial credit applies to projects placed in service by the end of 2027, so this window is itself closing. See our lease vs. buy guide .

Electric vehicles (§30D / §25E): both ended

Primary sources: IRS, new clean vehicle credit and used clean vehicle credit .

The federal EV credits are finished. Vehicles had to be acquired on or before September 30, 2025 to qualify. From October 2025 onward — and throughout 2026 — there is no federal credit on new or used EVs. What’s still available for EV buyers in 2026 — mostly state incentives — has its own guide.

That makes running-cost the deciding factor. An EV can still be far cheaper to fuel than gas, but you now pay full sticker price, so the gap matters more. Run your own numbers in the EV vs gas cost calculator .

Heat pumps, windows & home efficiency (§25C): ended

Primary source: IRS, Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit .

The Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit — up to $1,200/year for insulation, windows, doors and audits, plus up to $2,000/year for heat pumps and heat-pump water heaters — ended for property placed in service after December 31, 2025. A 2026 heat-pump install gets $0 federal §25C.

Many states and utilities still run heat-pump rebates (some funded through federal home-energy rebate programs administered at the state level). These are separate from the tax credit and change often — check your state energy office and utility.

What still exists federally

• §48E / §45Y — Clean Electricity Investment & Production Credits. These are commercial credits for system owners and businesses. Homeowners reach them only indirectly, through third-party-owned (lease/PPA) solar.
  • The 2027 solar cutoff is conditional, not absolute. §48E(e)(4) denies the credit to a facility placed in service after December 31, 2027 — but that restriction applies only to facilities that begin construction after July 4, 2026. A project that begins construction on or before that date is not subject to the 2027 in-service deadline at all. Beginning-of-construction is itself a defined test with a continuity requirement and a cost-based safe harbor for smaller systems. Anyone quoting you a flat “must be switched on by end-2027” is describing one branch of the rule as though it were the whole rule.
  • Third-party ownership is still allowed for rooftop solar and batteries. The leasing restriction added to §48E is narrow: it reaches solar water heating and small wind property only. Rooftop photovoltaics and battery storage are outside it, which is why lease and PPA arrangements for panels and storage continue to work.
• §48E standalone storage — still 30% in 2026. Battery storage is not an “applicable facility” for the wind-and-solar acceleration and is separately excepted, so its phase-out runs on its own schedule tied to when construction begins, and does not start biting until the mid-2030s. Reaching the full 30% rather than a 6% base generally requires the system to be under 1 MW or to meet prevailing-wage and apprenticeship conditions, and there are now foreign-entity sourcing thresholds and ownership restrictions that a commercial claimant has to satisfy. None of this is claimable by a homeowner on their own battery — it is a business credit, and this is the single most misreported point in the whole area.
• §30C — EV Charger Installation Credit: ended June 30, 2026 (IRS: Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit ). This was the last consumer-facing credit standing — worth 30% of the cost, capped at $1,000 for an individual installing home charging equipment in an eligible census tract — and it ended for property placed in service after June 30, 2026. If your charger was installed on or before that date, you can still claim it on the relevant year’s return; a charger installed later gets $0.

State solar credits still worth claiming (2026)

State income-tax credits were not affected by the federal law. Six states still offer a residential solar income-tax credit in 2026:

These figures are approximate and change; confirm the current amount on the public DSIRE database (dsireusa.org) and your state’s department of revenue before filing. Note that Utah’s residential solar credit expired for systems installed after January 1, 2024, and is not included. See the full state incentives overview .

The date test is different for each credit — and it is never the day you paid

Almost every dispute about these deadlines comes down to which event the statute actually keys on. The three consumer credits use three different tests, and confusing them is how people lose five figures.

§25D (home solar and batteries): when the installation is completed. This is the one most commonly stated wrongly, including by installers. §25D(e)(8)(A) treats the expenditure as made when the installation is completed — not when you signed, not when you paid, and not when the equipment arrived. So a homeowner who paid in full in 2025 but whose installation was finished in 2026 gets $0. Writing the check early bought nothing. Permitting delays and interconnection queues — neither of which the homeowner controls — decided the outcome for a lot of people at the end of 2025.

§25C (heat pumps, insulation, windows): placed in service. A genuinely different test, and the credit ended for property placed in service after December 31, 2025. Property can be installed and still not yet placed in service, so do not carry your §25D reasoning across to §25C or the reverse.

§30D and §25E (new and used EVs): when the vehicle was acquired, with the cutoff at September 30, 2025. The IRS has treated acquisition as turning on a written binding contract together with payment, so ordering early did not help on its own if the rest fell the wrong side of the date.

If you are in any doubt about which side of a deadline your own project landed on, that is exactly the question for a tax professional rather than for the company that sold you the system. The installer is not the one who signs your return.

What salespeople still say, and what is actually true

These are the claims worth pushing back on, because they are still in circulation and each one has a kernel of truth that makes it persuasive.

“You still get the 30% credit.” True only if you do not own the system. The 30% is §48E, a business credit belonging to whoever owns the equipment. On a lease or PPA the company claims it. On a purchase, nobody claims anything on your behalf and you get nothing.

“Lock in the credit by signing this year.” There is nothing left to lock in on the residential side. §25D has no begin-construction test that a signature could satisfy — it ended on a placed-in-service date that has now passed.

“Batteries still qualify for 30%.” Same distinction as solar. Storage does remain creditable under §48E for longer than solar does, which is why the claim keeps being made, but it remains a business credit. A battery you buy yourself in 2026 gets $0 federal. Our battery calculator prices both routes separately for this reason.

“The credit is coming back.” It might; tax law changes. But you cannot claim a credit that does not exist on the day your system is placed in service, and no one selling you equipment today knows what a future Congress will do.

“There’s a $7,500 EV credit.” Not since September 30, 2025. If a dealer’s pricing sheet still shows it, the sheet is stale — check the out-the-door number, not the incentive column.

One more credit worth knowing about: §45L, for new homes

If you are buying a newly built home rather than upgrading an existing one, there is a credit you never claim yourself but which may sit in the price: §45L, the new energy efficient home credit, is claimed by the builder for homes meeting certain efficiency standards.

It is also being wound down under the 2025 law, on its own timetable, and the relevant date is tied to when homes are acquired. Because that cutoff has moved and is easy to state wrongly, we are deliberately not putting a precise date on it here — if you are buying new construction and the builder is marketing energy-efficiency credits as part of the value, ask them in writing which credit they are claiming and for which tax year, and verify it against current IRS guidance.

How to check any of this yourself

You should not have to take our word for it, and the primary sources are public:

1. Go straight to the IRS page for the credit, not to a search result about it:

   • §25D — Residential Clean Energy Credit
   • §25C — Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit
   • §30D — New clean vehicle credit
   • §25E — Used clean vehicle credit
   • §30C — Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit
   • The residential credits are claimed on Form 5695 .

   Use the section number as your handle; credit names get reused and rebranded, which is a common source of confusion. Note also that agency web pages are not always updated the moment a law changes — if a page still describes a schedule running into the 2030s, that is the pre-2025 timetable, which was repealed.

2. Check the date test that applies. Residential property credits turn on placed in service; vehicle credits turned on acquired; business credits often turn on begin construction as well as placed-in-service. These are not interchangeable, and a source that does not say which test it means is not a source worth relying on.

3. For state and utility programs, use DSIRE and its full program index , which track them per state and is updated far more often than any article. State programs open, close and run out of funding mid-year in a way federal credits do not.

4. Be suspicious of undated pages. Most wrong information about 2026 is not fabricated — it is simply accurate content written in 2024 that nobody revisited. If a page does not say when it was last reviewed, treat its credit figures as historical.

What this actually changes about your decision

Losing the credits does not make these purchases bad. It makes the underlying economics matter, because there is no longer a 30% cushion hiding a weak case.

• Solar now lives or dies on your electricity rate. Above roughly 20¢/kWh the numbers still work; below about 15¢ a cash purchase is a very long hold. The case-by-case verdicts are in is solar worth it in 2026 .
• Batteries depend on the gap between your peak rate and your export credit , not on any credit — see the battery calculator linked above.
• EVs are now a straight running-cost comparison at full sticker price. That comparison is often still comfortably favorable: see what it costs to charge any model or the EV vs. gas cost comparison .
• Heat pumps compete on operating cost against whatever you heat with now, which for propane and oil households is frequently a win regardless of credits — the heat pump calculator runs it.
• Leases and PPAs are relatively more attractive than they were, purely because the buyer’s advantage disappeared while the lessor’s credit did not. That does not make them good deals automatically — read the escalator and the transfer terms. The lease-vs-buy guide linked above covers what to check.

The one route to “30%” a 2026 buyer can legitimately claim: carryforward

Most “the credit is dead” summaries skip this, and for some households it is worth thousands.

§25D is nonrefundable — it can reduce your tax to zero but never pays you a refund beyond that. What it is not is use-it-or-lose-it. If your system was placed in service in 2025 and qualified, but your tax liability that year was too small to absorb the full 30%, the unused portion carries forward. The 2025 law shortened the credit’s life but did not change that carryforward rule.

So a 2025 buyer with a $9,000 credit and $6,000 of tax owed generally carries the remaining $3,000 into 2026 and beyond, claiming it against later years’ tax. The Form 5695 mechanics — worksheet, carryforward line, and documentation — are walked through in how to claim the solar tax credit . That is the one circumstance where “2026” and “30% credit” belong in the same sentence for someone who bought their own system: you earned it in 2025 and are simply finishing the claim.

Two things it is not. It is not available if your system was placed in service in 2026 — there is no credit to carry. And it is not a cash refund; if you owe no federal tax at all in future years, a carryforward has nothing to offset. Confirm your own position with a tax professional.

Is the 30% credit coming back?

As of mid-2026 there is no scheduled return of the residential §25D credit and no pending legislation to restore it. Future Congresses can of course change that, but buying — or refusing to buy — on the expectation of a credit that may never return is a gamble with your own money.

Meanwhile the clock runs the other way: every month of waiting is a month of full-price electricity, and rates have kept climbing. If your numbers work at today’s prices, waiting rarely improves them. If they don’t work, a lease, a PPA or community solar is usually a better answer than sitting still — see cash vs loan vs lease .

Red flags in a 2026 solar or battery pitch

Since the credit ended, a handful of pitches have become common enough to be worth naming. None of these are necessarily dishonest — several are true statements aimed at the wrong person — but each should prompt a follow-up question:

• “You’ll get 30% back.” Ask who claims it. If you are buying, the answer is nobody. If it is a lease or PPA, the company claims §48E and the only question that matters is whether their pricing reflects it.
• “Sign before the deadline.” There is no residential deadline left to beat. §25D ended on a date that has already passed.
• A quote that shows a credit line. Ask for the number with the credit line removed. That is your actual cost.
• “Payback in five years” at an ordinary electricity rate. With no credit, that requires a rate well above 30¢/kWh. Run it yourself in the savings calculator linked above.
• Vagueness about the escalator on a lease. A 2.9% annual increase compounds substantially over 20 years; ask for the year-20 payment in writing.
• No mention of what happens when you sell. Transferring or buying out a third-party-owned system is a routine friction point in home sales. Ask how it works before signing, not after listing. Depth on all of this is in the lease-vs-buy guide linked earlier on this page.

The bottom line for 2026

If you buy solar, an EV, or a heat pump outright in 2026, plan on no federal tax credit. Your real savings now come from the running-cost math (which our calculators model) and any state or utility program you qualify for. The only route to ~30% on solar is a lease or PPA, and even that closes for systems placed in service after 2027.

Sources

• IRS — Residential Clean Energy Credit (§25D) · Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit (§25C) · New clean vehicle credit (§30D) · Used clean vehicle credit (§25E) · Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit (§30C) · Form 5695
• Statute — Public Law 119-21 (2025), the budget reconciliation act that set these termination dates.
• State and utility programs — DSIRE , Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, NC Clean Energy Technology Center.
• Electricity rates — U.S. Energy Information Administration, average price by state .

This guide is general information, not tax advice, and reflects the law as understood in 2026 after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Deadlines and amounts — especially the §48E construction/service dates, the §30C and §45L cutoffs, and state figures — should be verified against current IRS guidance and DSIRE before you act. Confirm your own situation with a licensed tax professional.

Want your own verdict in three inputs? The solar tax credit eligibility checker applies these dates and ownership rules to your situation — screening aid, not tax advice.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) electricity rates · DSIRE incentive records · public IRS/OBBBA guidance. Figures are modeled estimates, not quotes or tax advice. See our methodology.

Where to go next

• Is solar worth it at $0 credit? — The credit is gone. This is what its absence does to an ordinary homeowner’s decision, case by case.
• Lease vs. buy in 2026 — The only remaining route to a 30% credit on your roof, and exactly what the escalator charges you for it.
• State incentives — State income-tax credits were untouched by the 2025 law. Six states still have one worth claiming.
• EV vs. gas calculator — With the vehicle credits ended, an EV is now a straight running-cost comparison at full sticker price.
• Heat pump vs. furnace — Same story for the efficiency credit: a heat pump now has to win on operating cost alone, which against oil and propane it often does.