Introduced in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, the new Energy Storage Tax Incentive and Deployment Act is designed to establish investment tax credits (ITCs) for business and home use of energy storage.  The bills is a bipartisan effort introduced by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and being praised by NECA.  It could do for residential and commercial storage what the previous tax credit did for solar.

The bill is cosponsored by Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Angus King (I-Maine), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii).

Marco A. Giamberardino, NECA’s Executive Director of Government Affairs, said energy storage is an important component of the work done on both the utility and customer sides of the service point and it is performed routinely by qualified electrical contractors and electricians nationwide.

The details of this new bill clarify that consumer-owned storage systems, whether on or off grid, will be eligible for the ITC at the same credit currently available for solar energy. The same rule applies for C&I storage systems.  The aim, according to Heinrich, is for the ITC to open up greater competition for storage markets nationwide, and builds upon state-level storage support programs already introduced.

"This bipartisan bill will ensure federal policy supports the integration of emerging storage technologies into our nation’s energy grid," said Senator Heinrich. "Grid-scale energy storage will bolster system resilience during emergencies and outages, provide reliable supplemental services to the grid, and displace new investment in expensive substations and transmission lines."

The Senator added that the continuation of the impressive price reductions seen in the storage space over the last few years will help steer new electrical generation "consistently in the direction of clean, pollution-free power."

Senator Angus King, who also co-sponsored the bill, remarked that the ITC will play an important role in encouraging storage innovation and supporting the growth of the industry – growth that is expected to be driven by further cost reduction, particularly at commercial scale, over the next five years.