The federal Inflation Reduction Act will provide $10 billion in new funding for the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit program.
The program incentivizes industrial decarbonization, clean energy property manufacturing and recycling, and critical materials processing, refining, and recycling. Projects are eligible for an investment tax credit of up to 30 percent. Eligible projects include critical minerals processing facilities, equipment for carbon capture, and the manufacture of fuel cells and components for geothermal electricity and hydropower.
The program includes at least $4 billion for projects in communities with closed coal mines or retired coal-fired power plants.
“As we work to build a clean energy economy, I fought to ensure that manufacturing jobs end up in the communities who powered our Nation for generations,” U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) said. “These credits will bring new, cutting-edge jobs to the Pennsylvania’s coal country, revitalizing our communities and helping our workers to earn the family-sustaining wages they deserve.”
Casey advocated for the inclusion of provisions in the act that incentivize clean energy projects in areas where economies and jobs are or were dependent on the coal, oil, or natural gas energy sectors.
The credit will create 36,800 jobs in former coal communities over the next 10 years, according to one study.