Residential Clean Energy Credit.
In plain English
The Residential Clean Energy Credit was a federal tax credit worth 30% of the cost of qualifying home clean energy property such as solar panels, solar water heaters, wind turbines, geothermal heat pumps, and battery storage. Under the 2025 tax law (the One Big Beautiful Bill), the credit is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025. An expense counts as made when installation is finished, so a system completed in 2026 or later does not qualify. If you installed qualifying property in 2025 or earlier, you can still carry forward any unused credit to reduce the tax you owe in future years.
01Why it matters
If you were counting on a 30% federal discount to make home solar pencil out, that math changed for any system finished after the cutoff, which can swing the payback period by years.
02The math, step by step
Say you finished installing a $20,000 solar system in November 2025. Because it was placed in service before the cutoff, you could claim 30%, or $6,000, against your taxes. The same system completed in 2026 gets no federal credit.
03What this is NOT
The Residential Clean Energy Credit covered big clean-energy systems like solar and geothermal at 30%. The separate Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit covered smaller upgrades like insulation, windows, and efficient heat pumps. Both were affected by the 2025 law, but they are different credits with different rules.
04Receipts
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