Both chambers of Congress have introduced bills that would provide investment tax credits for energy storage projects. Both bills even appear to have some (perhaps superficial) bipartisan support. In the Senate, the “Storage Technology for Renewable and Green Energy Act of 2013” (S. 1030) was introduced on May 23rd by Senators Wyden (D-OR), Collins (R-ME), Merkley (D-OR), and King (I-ME). The Senate bill mirrors H.R. 1465, which was introduced by Representatives Gibson (R-NY) and Thompson (D-CA) in April (Representative Braley (D-IA) joined as a sponsor this week). Both bills have been referred to committee. Similar bills were introduced in the last Congress as well.
Investment tax credits are a proven policy for drawing investment to clean energy technologies. And Energy storage is receiving more and more attention as a key resource both for facilitating expansion of renewable generation resources and for increasing the efficiency and reliability of the electric grid. The issue for this legislation, and for tax credits to facilitate the green economy in general, is whether there is sufficient bipartisan support for tax credits in this space. Although the Electricity Storage Association touted the bipartisan support for this legislation when S. 1030 was introduced, the odds are probably long for the bill to arrive at the President’s desk any time soon. Because of the potential for advanced energy storage solutions to enable a more efficient and potentially cleaner grid, it is worth watching to see whether states step up with policies that effectively promote the early adoption of advanced storage technologies.