The midterm elections have revived a question many in the US solar industry thought was settled: can the federal solar tax credits come back? pv magazine USA counts at least seven bills before Congress that would restore some or all of the clean energy tax credits cut by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which was signed in 2025.
Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in the November elections, PV Tech reports, ending Republican control of Congress. The new Congress takes office in January.
What the bills would do
S. 2681, the Lowering Electric Bills Act, was filed four weeks after the OBBBA was signed. It would remove the provisions that ended the residential solar credit after 2025 and cut off wind and solar projects placed in service after 2027, restoring the emissions-based phase-out of the Inflation Reduction Act while leaving the rest of the OBBBA unchanged.
H.R. 5862, the American Energy Independence and Affordability Act, and H.R. 6900, the American Affordability Act of 2025, would both restore the Inflation Reduction Act. S. 3722, the Lowering Home Energy Costs Act, would reverse the OBBBA only for the residential credit.
H.R. 7977, the Energy Bills Relief Act, goes furthest. It would remove the foreign entity of concern restrictions, restore grant funding, add a transmission tax credit and reverse the administration's executive orders on wind and solar. "It's as if the OBBBA never existed," wrote John Fitzgerald Weaver of pv magazine USA.
S. 4175, from Senator Ron Wyden, would restore the clean electricity credits until the later of 2032 or six years after a "price or demand increase year", meaning a year in which the national average retail electricity price rises by more than 2% or electricity sales increase. Residential credits would return for two years after any such year.
H.R. 8477, the American Energy Dominance Act, was introduced by a Republican lawmaker and would restore the tax credits, but not the electric vehicle or manufacturing credits.
Signals from both parties
Philip Shen, managing director and senior research analyst at Roth Capital, said in late September: "Our checks suggest that Republicans are open to extending the ITC and 45X." Relaying a contact with insight into the party, he added that "we are moving into a positive political environment for solar".
There is also a precedent. In December 2020, a two-year extension of the solar tax credit was signed into law as part of a COVID relief and government spending package.
The limits
None of the seven bills has had a committee hearing, and all of them will expire when the 119th Congress ends on 3 January 2027, so they would have to be filed again. A Democratic majority would still need Republican votes to reach the 60 needed to end a filibuster in the Senate, and two-thirds of both chambers to override a presidential veto. Morningstar senior equity analyst Tancrede Fulop told PV Tech that he does not expect the federal tax credit to be reinstated "because Trump could veto that."
The OBBBA cut the solar investment tax credit but left in place the 45X manufacturing credit, which begins to phase out in 2030, and the battery investment tax credit. Existing tariffs, including Section 232 measures and anti-dumping and countervailing duties, are expected to stay.
What it means for the Americas
For US developers, a quick return of the solar tax credit is unlikely, and project plans should still assume today's rules. But the number of bills, a Republican sponsor and a Democratic Congress make a negotiated extension in a future spending package more plausible than at any time since the OBBBA passed. Storage and domestic manufacturing, which kept their credits, remain the most secure parts of the US market.
Source: pv magazine USA, with additional reporting from PV Tech.
