Inflation Reduction Act passes US Senate, vote in House of Representatives expected this week

August 8, 2022
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
The Act will shortly pass to the House of Representatives where is it expected to pass given a Democratic majority: Image: Pixabay.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes US$369 billion in energy security and climate change programmes over the next 10 years, passed in the US Senate on Sunday, paving the way for its movement to the House of Representatives and subsequent signing by President Joe Biden.

The Act passed by a 51-50 vote in the evenly split chamber, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Try Premium for just $1

  • Full premium access for the first month at only $1
  • Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
  • Cancel anytime during the trial period

Premium Benefits

  • Expert industry analysis and interviews
  • Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
  • Exclusive event discounts

Or get the full Premium subscription right away

Or continue reading this article for free

The Bill’s movement to the House, where is it expected to pass given a Democrat majority, is likely to take place at the end of the week as lawmakers look to reconvene despite the summer recess.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the legislation “the boldest clean energy package in American history”, while Biden said he looked forward to signing the Act into law.

As part of the IRA, US$30 billion will be earmarked for production tax credits (PTC) to accelerate US clean energy manufacturing, while an additional US$10 billion of investment tax credits (ITC) will be provided to build clean technology manufacturing facilities, such as factories that make solar modules and other clean technologies.

As expected, the passing was warmly welcomed by the US solar industry and climate advocates, despite it being significantly smaller than the planned Build Back Better act because of compromises struck with obstructive Democratic Senator Joe Manchin.

“This bill is going to quickly help the US become a major manufacturer of solar and other clean energy technologies, while enabling a more rapid transition to a low carbon future,” said Scott Moskowitz, head of market strategy and public affairs at Qcells America, whose parent company Hanwha Solution last week said it would consider upping its investment in US solar manufacturing if the act passes.

“Companies are ready to invest billions of dollars to leverage this policy to improve our supply chains, lower energy costs, and address the climate crisis,” Moskowitz added.

Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) president and CEO, Abigail Ross Harper, said the “long-term incentives for clean energy deployment and manufacturing” in the Act meant “the solar and storage industry can create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and get to work building out the next era of American energy leadership.”

“The Inflation Reduction Act is ground-breaking for our industry and exactly what we need to accelerate the clean energy transition,” said Meghan Nutting, executive VP for Government and Regulatory Affairs at residential solar installer Sunnova, adding the Act would present opportunities to proliferate the adoption of distributed energy resources like solar and storage.  

Solar tracker manufacturer Nextracker said it “strongly supports the Inflation Reduction Act, which will immediately increase hiring at our US factories”. Its CEO and founder Dan Shugar said, “energy independence and decoupling from overseas inflation factors has never been more important. We urge the House to quickly pass this landmark legislation for President Biden’s signature.”

Last week, PV Tech Premium reported that the IRA was the US’ “best chance to build a domestic manufacturing base” that is crucial for it to meet its decarbonisation targets amid a PV module shortage in the country.

Under the proposals, the solar manufacturing tax credits are as follows:

  • Modules would receive US$0.07, multiplied by the capacity of the module (on a per direct current watt basis)
  • Thin-film or crystalline PV cells would get US$0.04, multiplied by the cell’s capacity (on a per direct current watt basis)
  • Wafers would secure US$12 per square metre
  • Polymeric backsheets would receive US$0.40 per square metre
  • Solar-grade polysilicon would get US$3 per kilogramme

Those credits are broadly in line with manufacturing support included in the Solar Energy Manufacturing for America (SEMA) Act, first proposed by Senator Jon Ossoff last year that was broadly welcomed by much of the US solar industry, although it got less traction in government at the time.  

Pol Lezcano, BloombergNEF’s lead analyst for North American Solar, told PV Tech Premium that “with the manufacturing incentives in place, the US could reach its full polysilicon production potential of approximately 21GW in less than two years, and make 10GW worth of modules per year starting in 2025.”

16 June 2026
Napa, USA
PV Tech has been running PV ModuleTech Conferences since 2017. PV ModuleTech USA, on 16-17 June 2026, will be our fifth PV ModulelTech conference dedicated to the U.S. utility scale solar sector. The event will gather the key stakeholders from solar developers, solar asset owners and investors, PV manufacturing, policy-making and and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out the PV module supply channels to the U.S. out to 2027 and beyond.

Read Next

October 23, 2025
US solar manufacturer T1 Energy sold approximately 725MW of solar modules in Q3 2025, as it continues to expand US manufacturing capabilities.
October 22, 2025
Recurrent Energy, Ampliform and Dimension Energy have announced new financing rounds this month for US solar projects.
October 22, 2025
Leeward Renewable Energy has started commercial operations at its 177MW Ridgely solar project in the US state of Tennessee.
October 22, 2025
US thin-film manufacturer First has revealed another transfer of its 45X manufacturing tax credits in a deal worth around US$775 million.
October 22, 2025
Abigail Ross Hopper, the president and CEO of US trade association the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), has decided to step down from her roles at the end of January 2026.
October 21, 2025
Cypress Creek Renewables has achieved financial close on its 75MW Sundance solar-plus-storage project in Elbert County, Colorado.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
November 25, 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Solar Media Events
December 2, 2025
Málaga, Spain
Solar Media Events
February 3, 2026
London, UK
Solar Media Events
March 10, 2026
Frankfurt, Germany
Solar Media Events
March 24, 2026
Lisbon, Portugal