We got a really useful update on the IRA tax credits for home electrification & efficiency from the Treasury Department, via E&E News. Over 3.4 million households received $8 billion in tax credits last year for making energy and efficiency upgrades.
“Those significant numbers show that these credits are more popular than initially projected,” said Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo in a call with reporters.
750,000 homes took advantage of the 30% tax credit to install rooftop solar panels. One small disappointment is that fewer than 300,000 households got a tax credit for heat pumps, which was roughly equivalent to the number of households that used the tax credit to install insulated exterior doors.
A Treasury official said yesterday that, while the lack of heat pump uptake was surprising, the department anticipated that number to rise over time.
Hopefully that's right! One interesting factoid is that nearly half of all households claiming these tax credits had incomes of less than $100,000, so it's good to see lower and middle-income households taking advantage of the tax credits even before the upfront rebates become available 🤓
Heatmap has some more information (and charts!). Here you can see just how much more popular the IRA solar panel tax credit was than the others:
The IRA also includes tax credits for efficient natural gas space and water heaters, and those were used a bit more often than the heat pump equivalents, which is unfortunate! Heat pump water heaters especially need more deployment.
@Dana Nuccitelli it’s great that members of both parties seem to understand that their constituents are benefiting from these tax credits. Also reported in Heatwave—Rep. Garbarino and 18 House Republicans sent a letter to Speaker Johnson asking him not to eliminate the credits.
I am one of the 750K people who installed solar in 2023 (helped organize a solarize campaign in 2023 as a CCL chapter supported community activity). I will be applying for another tax credit in 2024 for an energy efficiency upgrade in 2024. I split my efficiency projects and have a 2nd upgrade planned for 2025 to maximize tax benefits. I also replaced my used Honda Fit with a used (2 year) Chevy Bolt for a really good price and under 15K miles (from what my research indicated was the most efficient EV one can find in the market). May be eligible for $4K tax credit but not sure. My challenge next year is best managing which tax credits I do claim. I still have an unclaimed residual from solar and battery from 2023 but should not be an issue in fully using in 2024. Wait and see if eligible for an State “partial” state rebates that may be available in 2025 - but wait and see. One note though – heat pump prices have (i believe temporarily) are significantly up for a number of reasons (neighbor recently spent $10K in Ga for replacing one zone) though I am optimistic pricing will come down as supply ramps up and more traditional HVAC installers see the opportunities and enters this space (competition). As part of this effort, i have done and will continue to host open houses as part of community driven efforts (through orgs I am active in locally) that has also opened opportunities to engage in ongoing dialogue with my county and state elected officials on supportive policy positions as well as my electrical coop (my electrical utility) board and board chair which is not keen on and remains an obstacle for distributed energy resource integration. Hoping to make inroads here as they are not for the most part regulated and generally non-responsive to its owners. Makes the State investor owned utility monopoly look good in comparison. Onwards and upwards and really appreciate CCL's electrification and efficiency policy pillar as a way to for me to personally activate personally and as part of community driven engagement (that my CCL chapter supports) that does help when we meet with our federal representatives and senator on CCL national priorities.
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