End of 2027 Is the Hard Deadline Left for US Wind and Solar Tax Credits

Solar and wind projects that aren't placed into service by December 31, 2027 lose their federal tax credits outright — the single hardest date left standing after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed in July 2025, gutted the decade of certainty Congress handed developers in August 2022.

That certainty was real while it lasted. One post-IRA analysis projected an additional 155 gigawatts of solar and wind capacity by 2030 and more than $270 billion in added investment. The OBBBA sharply shortened the window to claim the investment tax credit (ITC) and production tax credit (PTC) and tightened qualification rules.

Expected to crush clean-energy growth, the law didn't do that. What it did create, immediately, was confusion over who can still access credits, for how long, and under what conditions. A recent Canary Media Forum, "Hold onto Your Tax Credits: How to Get Ahead of the 2027 Deadline," sponsored by Intersolar & Energy Storage North America, pulled together a tax attorney, a developer, a procurement specialist and a manufacturer to sort it out.

What dates actually matter?

"Those credits go away if your project isn't placed into service by the end of 2027," said Heather Cooper, a partner at McDermott Will & Schulte.

There's one exception. The OBBBA gave solar and wind projects one year to begin construction, a countdown that ended July 4, 2026. Projects that met it generally have four calendar years from construction start to reach placed-in-service status — for projects that broke ground this year, that means the end of 2030.

The takeaway: two clocks are running, and which one applies depends on what a developer can prove happened before July 4, 2026.

How firm are the IRS definitions?

Less than the dates suggest. "Placed in service" and "begin construction" both leave room for interpretation. The IRS lists five factors it weighs in deciding whether a project is in service — including secured permits and licenses, completed preoperation tests, and synchronization with the power grid.

Because the IRS evaluates those factors case by case, Cooper noted, a project doesn't necessarily need all five. Beginning construction doesn't require modules in the ground by July 4, either. Under IRS rules, developers can qualify by performing significant physical work on or off site, or by paying or incurring at least 5 percent of total project costs — often through module or equipment purchases.

Even developers who missed the July 4 date on paper may have a case. Cooper said reviewing what happened before that date — smaller equipment contracts, tracked internal costs, early site work — may support a claim that construction had already begun.

Which projects survive the deadline?

For portfolios without a July 4 start, triage is the first job. Rohit Patil, senior director of design engineering at New Leaf Energy, said developers should identify which projects have a realistic path to in-service status by end-2027 and which merit acceleration.

"The placed-in-service deadline doesn't necessarily turn a marginal project into a good project," Patil said. "Projects with borderline economics are particularly vulnerable because they have little room to absorb any additional costs and delays."

The binding constraint for many is interconnection. Kleber Facchini, senior director of CC&I products and applications at SolarEdge Technologies, said customers building both ground-mounted and rooftop systems are shifting toward rooftops — they connect to the distribution grid near cities and interconnect faster than rural ground-mount projects on weaker grids.

What should developers buy now — and from whom?

Equipment decisions shape credit eligibility twice over.

• Timing. A project can't reach in-service status without all equipment on site. Facchini flagged transformers for especially long lead times and urged early procurement of modules, racking and trackers.
• Tariffs. New Section 232 tariffs on imported polysilicon and solar products, including modules, take effect December 4. "Any sort of modules that land after that date will cost you more," said Ravi Manghani, senior director of strategic sourcing at Anza Renewables.
• Compliance. The OBBBA's foreign entity of concern (FEOC) rules can disqualify an on-schedule project entirely — denying credits where ownership, debt or control is too tied to China, Russia, North Korea or Iran. For projects beginning construction in 2026 or later, FEOC rules also cap the share of equipment from manufacturers linked to those countries.

Can the rules shift again?

The IRA's architects assumed it would endure because its benefits flowed to Republican constituencies. For wind and solar, that assumption failed.

The longer lesson is that federal energy tax policy rarely stays settled. "Folks who've been in the industry long enough know that an ITC cliff is not necessarily an ITC cliff," Manghani said.

The midterms and the 2028 presidential election could reshape the incentive landscape yet again — but between now and then, the end-of-2027 in-service deadline is what decides which projects keep their money.