The U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in partnership with the Department of Energy (DOE), has announced that the DOE will stop accepting applications for the 2023 program year of the Inflation Reduction Act’s Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Program after February 29, 2024, 11:59 PM EST.
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis up until the February 29 deadline. Capacity is limited; only applications submitted in categories with remaining capacity will be considered. To check the capacity status of each category, check out the DOE’s Program Capacity Dashboard here.
The program provides a 10- or 20-percentage point boost to the Investment Tax Credit for qualifying solar or wind facilities in low-income communities.
During the initial 30-day application period, the program received more than 46,000 applications for new energy facilities across the U.S. The applications represent more than 8 GW of generation capacity – more than four times the total capacity available for the 2023 program.
“President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is ensuring all Americans benefit from the growth of the clean energy economy through good-paying jobs and lower costs,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo, in a statement. “There has been sky-high demand for this program and these historic opportunities to invest in underserved communities will continue in the next program year.”
The 2024 program, opening this spring, will unlock an additional 1.8 GW of capacity.
Read the rest of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s press release here.