Department of the Treasury / Internal Revenue Service · Energy · Transportation · Public Facilities
IRA Elective Pay (Direct Pay) — Clean-Energy Tax Credits for Tax-Exempt Entities
Mechanism (not a program) that lets tax-exempt cities, counties, and tribes monetize federal clean-energy tax credits as direct cash refunds — Investment Tax Credit (§48), Production Tax Credit (§45), Commercial Clean Vehicle (§45W), Alternative Fuel Refueling Property (§30C), and 9 others. Unlocks municipal solar, storage, EV fleet, and microgrid investments at scale.
Program facts
- Typical award
- $50K – $100M
- Non-federal match
- Varies by NOFO
- Audience
- Cities, towns, counties, and tribal governments
- Application window
- Pre-file registration on IRS portal, then claim on Form 990-T after project placed in service.
- Typical prep time
- 4–12 weeks
- Statutory authority
- IRA §13801 (IRC §6417)
Catalog entry last verified 2026-05-24 · Verify on the agency page →
Eligibility at a glance
- Cities are eligible applicants.
Not a competitive grant — refund of credits the city would otherwise have no way to use. Adders available for energy-community / low-income / domestic-content. Amounts and timing approximate; verify directly with administering agency.
How Strategic Pursuit scores this program
When you run a city dossier, Strategic Pursuit cross-checks the city's demographics, federal award history, disaster history, and CEJST burden categories against this program's eligibility and strategic-fit signals. You see an explicit eligibility / strategic / competitive grade — backed by source citations — instead of a generic "match" badge.
Planning purposes only. Award ranges, match percentages, and application windows on this page summarize the latest publicly available agency guidance and are approximate. Always verify the binding NOFO on the administering agency's page before applying.