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Dive Brief
Clean energy developers can sell their federal tax credits to companies that need them to reduce their tax bills, but developers are now generating credits faster than companies are buying them. That imbalance is giving buyers more bargaining power and putting pressure on sellers to compete for deals, Renewable Credit Management's third quarter 2026 market report finds.
Production tax credits are holding up, with solar and wind credits fetching 92 to 94.5 cents per $1 of credit. Buyers favor these credits over investment tax credits in part because they are easier to evaluate and carry less risk, according to RCM.
Investment-based tax credits for solar, battery storage and biogas, calculated as a percentage of eligible project costs, are selling for 90 to 93 cents per $1, while technology-neutral ITCs are facing more price pressure as buyers weigh uncertainty over new federal rules. RCM reports those credits are currently selling for 88 to 91 cents per $1.
Dive Insight
The market for buying and selling investment tax credits is becoming a more important part of corporate tax planning as more companies look to use credits generated by clean energy projects to reduce their federal tax bills.
About one in four Fortune 1000 companies now participate as a buyer, according to Crux, a financial services company that facilitates deals. Financial services firms account for 45% of market volume, while energy and utility companies account for 34%.
Public filings rarely identify both the corporate buyer and type of tax credit, but Opal Fuels, the Nasdaq-listed renewable natural gas company, disclosed that Athene, a retirement solutions provider, bought ITCs tied to two of its projects. Athene bought an undisclosed portion of $17.4 million in credits from a Florida project last year; in March 2026, Athene and its reinsurance affiliate bought $22.9 million in credits from its subsidiary Land2Gas LLC, providing the seller $21.6 million in proceeds.
The market has shifted from the buyer-constrained conditions of 2023-24 to a supply-rich environment, according to RCM, with residential clean energy financing platforms increasingly selling credits to raise working capital.
Sunnova, formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange, was among the early residential solar finance companies to monetize transferable credits, reporting $207.4 million in ITC sales in 2023 and about $645.5 million in 2024. Residential solar alone was expected to generate roughly $6 billion in investment tax credits in 2025, according to Reunion Infrastructure. Final, audited figures for last year are still being officially tabulated.
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