New Mexico senator to roll out tax credit for energy storage
Tax credits have been a boon to both wind and solar power by providing financing strategies that have spurred their growth. If legislation being pushed in the Senate by Martin Heinrich is passed, storage could receive its own tax credit.
Some storage applications can qualify for a credit under existing ITC standards, but qualifications have been decided on a case-by-case basis and are complicated by considerations having to do with dual-use properties, that is, devices that can act as both load and supply.
The White House, meanwhile, is backing energy storage and microgrids.
Speaking at a White House summit on emerging grid technologies, Heinrich said, “Our grid is beginning to behave very differently. Customers are becoming generators and new technologies have made transmission a two-way street,” according to Politico.
Heinrich’s bill would cover commercial storage systems using batteries, flywheels, pumped hydro, thermal energy and compressed air as long as they can provide a minimum of 5 kWh of storage.
On the residential side, the credit would only apply to battery storage with a minimum capacity of 3 kWh.
