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...
“Deep inside a purpose-built turbine hall at Menengai, something ancient met something modern — and the lights of an entire nation moved a little closer to permanently on." There are moments in infrastructure history that arrive without spectacle yet reshape entire industries. No fireworks. No ribbon-cutting theatrics. Just a valve opening, a surge of pressure, and a machine beginning to move. This week, at , one of those moments occurred. confirmed that steam had been successfully admitted into the turbine at its 35MW Menengai II Geothermal Power Station — the decisive step known as hot commissioning . It is the point where engineering theory meets physical reality. Where a project ceases to be an idea and becomes infrastructure. On paper, it is a routine milestone. In reality, it is a signal — one that echoes far beyond Nakuru County. Because what just happened at Menengai is not just about 35MW. It is about proving that geothermal energy in Africa has entered a new phase: ...