The Keystone Research Center (KRC) today released a new report, Use It or Lose It: Why Pennsylvania Should Accelerate Solar Projects to Capture Federal Tax Credits, that documents the six-fold growth of solar energy in Pennsylvania since 2019 and lays out a roadmap for Pennsylvania to capture billions of dollars in remaining federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tax credits before shortened deadlines under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) take them off the table.

Authored by KRC Economist Stephen Herzenberg and KRC Research Analyst Avery Spicka, the report finds that Pennsylvania solar electricity projects have already drawn down over half a billion dollars in IRA tax credits through the end of 2025 — and that significant additional credits remain within reach for projects already in the pipeline and new projects that move quickly.

REPORT RESOURCES:

PDF | Webinar Recording | Presentation Slides | Press Release

 

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Key Findings

• Pennsylvania’s solar capacity is more than six times larger than in 2019 and three times larger than in 2022, reaching 2.24 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity by the end of 2025 across grid-scale, commercial, and residential projects.
• Electricity rates have climbed sharply over the same period. Industrial rates in Pennsylvania are up nearly 50% since early 2020 after adjusting for inflation, and residential rates are up roughly 25% — underscoring the urgency of bringing more low-cost solar generation online.
• Pennsylvania solar projects have already drawn down over half a billion in IRA Investment Tax Credits through 2025.
• If half the gig-scale (> 3 MW) and commercial scale (< 3 MW) projects in the PJM and utility queues gets built with a 30% tax credit, it would boost the Pennsylvania economy with over $8 billion in total (private plus tax credit) investment, add 6.5GW of solar, three times more than the 2.2 GW of total solar capacity Pennsylvania had as of 2025.
• Case studies of recent projects show payback periods of eight years or less with a 30% IRA tax credit, including school district, municipal, commercial, and utility-scale projects across the Commonwealth

Media Coverage

Report: PA still has time to capture billions in federal solar tax credits

 

 

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ‘Use it or lose it’: Solar advocates say IRS is still writing checks for solar credits, so go get yours

 

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