The Solar Investment Tax Credit: Inequitable Distribution to Low-and-Moderate-Income Residents

Payne Institute and Mines Advanced Energy Systems student Lyle Vaz writes about how decarbonizing the electric grid has been a key effort in trying to prevent the worst impacts of anthropogenic climate change. The traditional centralized power grid of the past has seen an increasing replacement of fossil fuel-based power plants with generation from renewable energy (RE) sources. While improvement in PV technology and the corresponding decline in costs are the main reasons for this growth in the utility-scale PV space, residential projects suffer because of relatively high upfront capital costs to the stakeholder (homeowner, with much lower income than corporations), and the federal incentive that applies here, the solar investment tax credit (ITC), is scheduled to expire starting in 2024 . May 26, 2022.