Every claim on this page checked against primary sources on
Federal solar incentives in 2026
The federal picture for solar changed more on January 1, 2026 than in any year since the credit was created in 2005 — and it changed in opposite directions depending on who owns the system. A homeowner who buys gets nothing. A company that owns panels on that homeowner's roof still claims 30%. 26 U.S.C. § 25D(h) 26 U.S.C. § 48E
These three pages hold the whole federal answer. Every provision on them is quoted from the United States Code or from IRS guidance read as a document, with the date it was read printed on the page.
Start here
What died and what did not, on one screen
| Provision | Who claimed it | Status in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| § 25D — Residential clean energy credit | Homeowner buying a system | Repealed for expenditures made after Dec. 31, 2025 |
| § 25C — Energy efficient home improvement credit | Homeowner | Repealed for property placed in service after Dec. 31, 2025 |
| § 48E — Clean electricity investment credit | Business owning the system, including a lease or PPA provider | Intact, subject to a Dec. 31, 2027 cliff for wind and solar |
| § 48E energy storage | Business | Intact and excepted from the 2027 cliff |
| § 6418 — Transfer of credits | Credit seller and unrelated buyer | Intact; new bar on transfers to specified foreign entities |
| § 6417 — Elective (direct) payment | Tax-exempts, governments, tribes, rural electric co-ops | Intact |
| § 25D carryforward | Homeowner whose system was finished by Dec. 31, 2025 | Intact — unused credit carries into 2026 |
Which question are you actually asking?
- "Can I still get the credit?" — If your installation was completed on or before December 31, 2025, yes, on your 2025 return, and the unused portion carries forward. If it was completed in 2026, no, regardless of when you signed or paid. The full answer, by scenario.
- "Should I lease instead, then?" — It is a real question in 2026 for the first time, and the honest answer is that leasing did not get good, buying got worse. The trap is that state and utility programs mostly still require you to own the system. Worked through here.
- "What is left federally at all?" — One credit of consequence and the machinery around it, on a clock. What survives.
- "So is solar still worth it?" — Now almost entirely a state and utility question. Start with your state.
Why these pages quote statute instead of summarizing it
Because the most consequential fact about the 2026 rules is a drafting detail. The leasing restriction Congress enacted alongside the repeal names two categories of residential energy property and omits a third, and the omitted one is rooftop photovoltaic panels. No summary conveys that; only the text does. The same is true of the timing rule that decides whether a system finished in January 2026 qualifies — it turns on four words in a subsection almost nobody quotes. IRS FS-2025-05
So the federal pages here reproduce the operative language and link to the official source, and record the date it was read. How we verify sets out the rules in full.
Primary sources
Every one of these was opened and read on the date shown. None of it is copied from DSIRE, EnergySage, or any other aggregator.
- 26 U.S.C. § 25D — Residential clean energy credit (official U.S. Code text) read July 28, 2026
- 26 U.S.C. § 48E — Clean electricity investment credit (official U.S. Code text) read July 28, 2026
- IRS Fact Sheet FS-2025-05 — FAQs on the energy provisions of Public Law 119-21 issued Aug. 21, 2025; read July 28, 2026