US Geothermal Tax Credits in 2026: What Is Actually Still Alive After OBBBA For an industry that spent more than a decade building financial models around a stable federal incentive structure, 2026 has been a year of whiplash. The 30% federal geothermal tax credit that developers and homeowners built forecasts around is gone in one form and still alive in another, and even the IRS’s own public guidance has been confusing enough to trigger uncertainty across the market. That confusion is not a minor clerical issue. It is shaping investment decisions, contractor sales pitches, homeowner timelines, and project finance assumptions right now. If you work in geothermal, the key question is no longer whether federal incentives exist, but which incentive applies, to which project type, and under what ownership structure. The law that changed the timeline To understand where things stand in 2026, you have to start with the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which created a long runway for clean e...
Biden Administration to Boost Geothermal Energy for AI Growth By: Robert Buluma In a groundbreaking move, the Biden administration is set to unveil policies aimed at streamlining permitting processes for geothermal energy development. This effort is part of a broader executive order to bolster infrastructure for AI data centers, signaling the critical role of renewable energy in shaping the future of artificial intelligence. The proposed measures, expected to be published within a week, highlight the urgency of accelerating approvals for geothermal and nuclear energy projects. Central to the initiative is the establishment of geothermal energy priority zones and a competitive framework for companies to build data centers on federal land. These steps aim to meet the increasing energy demands of AI technologies, which are projected to double current electricity requirements. The Role of Geothermal Energy in AI Infrastructure Geothermal energy, with its low carbon footprint and relia...