The Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Program supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda – a transformative set of investments designed to create jobs, lower costs for American families, and spur an economic revitalization in communities that have historically been left behind. The Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) established the program under section 48(e), which was added to the Internal Revenue Code by the Inflation Reduction Act, to promote cost-saving clean energy investments in low-income communities, on Indian land, as part of affordable housing developments, and benefitting low-income households.

The program prioritizes:

• Increased adoption of and access to renewable energy facilities in underserved and environmental justice communities.
• Encouraging new market participants.
• Providing substantial benefits to underserved communities and individuals who have been historically marginalized from economic opportunities and overburdened by environmental impacts.

DOE’s Office of Economic Impact and Diversity is administering the Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Program in partnership with the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS. The bonus credit provides a 10 or 20 percentage point increase to the investment tax credit for qualified solar and wind energy facilities with a maximum net output of less than five megawatts (AC). DOE will review applications and make recommendations to the IRS, which will allocate up to 1.8 gigawatts (GW) of eligible solar and wind capacity per year.

A 10-percentage point increase is available to eligible solar and wind facilities that are installed in low-income communities or on Indian land and a 20-percentage point credit increase is available to eligible solar and wind facilities that are part of a qualified low-income residential building or a qualified low-income economic benefit project.

For the 2024 program year, at least 50% of the capacity of each category will be reserved for projects meeting certain ownership and/or geographic selection criteria as outlined in the Final Regulations and Revenue Procedure.

• Applicants must submit information for each facility for which they are seeking an allocation. Applications will require information such as the applicable category, ownership, location, facility size/capacity, whether the applicant or facility meet additional selection criteria, and other information.
• Applicants will complete a series of attestations provided in the online portal and upload certain documentation (in order to demonstrate project maturity).
• Each individual completing an application on behalf of their organization will need a Login.gov account in order to complete an application.