Incentive articles go stale fast, and this is a topic where stale information actively costs readers money — either because they budget around a credit that no longer exists, or because they assume nothing is available when a narrower program still is. Everything below was checked against current sources as of September 2026, with the status stated explicitly for each program. If a program isn’t covered here, or if you’re reading this well after publication, verify directly with the IRS, your state energy office, or your utility before relying on any number for your budget.
The Federal Residential Clean Energy Credit (Section 25D): Expired for 2026 Installations
Section 25D used to provide a 30% federal tax credit for solar panels, solar battery storage, geothermal heat pumps, and similar residential clean-energy property, with no dollar cap. That credit has ended. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed into law July 4, 2025, eliminated Section 25D for expenditures made after December 31, 2025. The credit applies based on when a system is “placed in service” — installation completed — not when you signed a contract or made a deposit. If your solar battery, whole-home battery, or solar system was installed and placed in service on or before December 31, 2025, you can still claim the credit on that tax year’s return, and unused credit amounts can generally be carried forward. If your installation is completed anytime in 2026, it does not qualify for this credit — there is currently no federal residential tax credit for buying and owning battery storage outright.
The Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit (Section 25C): Also Expired
Section 25C, which covered a separate set of home-efficiency upgrades (things like heat pumps, insulation, and certain water heaters), was eliminated by the same legislation on the same December 31, 2025 deadline. This one is worth stating plainly because it’s a credit that gets mentioned in home-improvement content of all kinds, including on HVAC and water heating topics: as of 2026, it is not active. If you see a 2026-dated article claiming this credit is still available, treat that as outdated.
So Is Any Federal Incentive Still Live for a Generator or Battery Purchase?
For the common case — a homeowner buying and owning a standby generator or a home battery system outright — the honest answer as of September 2026 is no direct federal tax credit currently applies. A few narrower, more technical situations exist and are worth knowing about, but none of them are a general-purpose credit you should assume applies to you:
- Fuel-fired standby generators (natural gas, propane, diesel) have never qualified for Section 25D. The IRS treated 25D as a clean-energy-generation-and-storage credit, not a general backup-power credit, so this isn’t a 2026 change — it was always the case. A handful of narrow federal deduction scenarios exist for generators used for documented medical necessity, active business use, or rental property operation, but these are specific tax-deduction situations, not a homeowner credit, and you should talk to a tax professional before assuming you qualify.
- Third-party owned (leased or PPA) systems may indirectly touch a different credit. Section 48E, a commercial clean-electricity investment credit, is still technically in force for qualifying projects, but it’s claimed by the entity that owns the equipment — relevant only if you’re leasing a battery system or using a power-purchase agreement through a company that retains ownership, not if you buy and own the system yourself. Section 48E is also on its own accelerating phase-out schedule under the same 2025 legislation, so its future availability is not guaranteed either. If a leasing or PPA company tells you their pricing reflects this credit, ask them to show you how, and confirm with your own tax professional rather than taking it at face value.
State and Utility Programs: They Exist, and They Change Just as Fast
This is where a national blog post genuinely can’t give you a complete or reliable answer for your specific address — state and utility programs number in the hundreds, funding levels change year to year, and many close or go to a waitlist once their budget is spent. A good example of how fast this moves: California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), one of the best-known state battery storage rebate programs in the country, had its General Market and Equity Resiliency budgets close out entirely as of December 31, 2025. As of 2026, general-market residential applicants are effectively waitlisted with no active funding, and the only pathways still actively funded are the income-qualified Equity and Equity Resiliency tiers, aimed at low-income households and those in high fire-risk or medical-baseline situations. A program that was a reliable go-to reference a year or two ago is, in its general form, not currently something most homeowners can rely on.
Other states and individual utilities run their own generator or battery incentive programs, and some of these remain active — but we’re not going to list specific dollar amounts here for programs we haven’t verified as currently funded for your location, because that’s exactly the kind of stale-information problem this article is trying to avoid. Instead, use these paths to check what’s real for you:
How to verify what actually applies to you
- Search the DSIRE database (the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, a long-running project tracking state and utility programs) for your specific state.
- Check IRS.gov directly for the current status of Sections 25D and 25C rather than relying on any blog, including this one, since tax law can change again.
- Contact your own utility — many run rebate programs separate from state or federal ones, and they’re the authoritative source for what they currently offer.
- Check your state energy office website directly.
- Get any incentive a dealer or installer cites in writing, and confirm it with a tax professional before you build it into your budget.
A Note on Carryforward and Paperwork, If You Installed in 2025
If your solar battery, whole-home battery, or solar system was placed in service on or before December 31, 2025, don’t assume the credit is automatically applied — you (or your accountant) still need to file IRS Form 5695 for the relevant tax year, and if your credit exceeds your tax liability for that year, the unused portion generally carries forward to future years rather than being lost. Keep your installer’s paperwork showing the placed-in-service date, since that date, not your contract or deposit date, is what determines eligibility. If you’re unsure whether your project qualified under the old deadline, that’s a conversation for a tax professional, not a guess.
Why We’re Not Listing State-by-State Dollar Amounts Here
It might seem more useful for this article to just list every state’s generator or battery rebate program with dollar figures attached. We’re intentionally not doing that, for the same reason the DSIRE database itself exists as a constantly-updated tool rather than a static list: state and utility programs open, close, run out of funding, and get replaced with new versions on their own schedules, often without much national coverage. A number that’s accurate in September 2026 can be wrong by the time you read this in six months, and a wrong number in a budget is worse than no number at all. Treat any state or utility incentive as provisional until you’ve confirmed it’s currently funded and open to new applicants for your specific program tier.
Bottom Line
Going into a 2026 purchase, the safest planning assumption is that federal tax credits do not apply to a standby generator or a homeowner-owned battery system, because as of this writing, they don’t. State and utility programs are a real but fragmented landscape that can genuinely reduce your cost — but only if a specific program is actually funded and open in your location right now, which requires a direct check, not a national article’s word for it.
Whatever incentives do or don’t apply, the installation requirements don’t change: a standby generator or hardwired battery system still needs a licensed electrician (and licensed gas fitter for fuel-fired units), a proper transfer switch, and local permitting. See our whole-house standby generator guide, standby generator brand comparison, backup power costs by region, and when it makes sense to buy for the parts of this decision we can answer definitively.
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