The Inflation Reduction Act's energy community bonus adds +10% to ITC (or +10% to PTC) for projects sited in communities with closed coal mines, retired coal plants, or fossil fuel employment above national thresholds. It's one of the most valuable IRA adders — but the eligibility map is uneven.
We checked every project in the Glass Energy database against the IRS energy community census tract and MSA/non-MSA designations. Here's what we found.
The map: 17,710 projects qualify
Out of 47,567 utility-scale projects across 9 ISO/RTO regions, 17,710 (37.2%) sit in designated energy communities. That's 1.88 million MW of capacity eligible for the bonus.
The spread is dramatic. CAISO leads at 65.1% — driven by California's combination of former fossil fuel employment zones and coal closure areas. Meanwhile, ISO-NE has zero eligible projects, because New England has neither significant coal history nor qualifying fossil fuel employment thresholds.
Eligibility by ISO/RTO
| ISO/RTO | Total Projects | EC Eligible | Eligible % | EC Capacity (MW) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAISO | 10,388 | 6,762 | 65.1% | 421,224 |
| MISO | 5,506 | 2,094 | 38.0% | 345,828 |
| PJM | 10,242 | 3,687 | 36.0% | 158,521 |
| West | 6,628 | 2,358 | 35.6% | 504,844 |
| Southeast | 3,175 | 838 | 26.4% | 112,370 |
| SPP | 2,842 | 618 | 21.7% | 117,212 |
| ERCOT | 3,866 | 822 | 21.3% | 157,340 |
| NYISO | 3,009 | 531 | 17.6% | 59,076 |
| ISO-NE | 1,911 | 0 | 0.0% | 0 |
Top states by eligible project count
California dominates with 6,815 eligible projects and 431 GW of capacity. Pennsylvania (1,260), Texas (960), and Illinois (927) follow — all states with significant coal and fossil fuel heritage that triggers EC designation.
Why this matters for investors
The 10% EC bonus is additive. A solar project in an energy community with base 30% ITC goes to 40%. Stack with low-income (+10-20%) and domestic content (+10%), and you're looking at 50-70% effective ITC. On a $5M project, that's the difference between $1.5M and $3.5M in tax credits.
For ITC investors, energy community eligibility is one of the first screens. Our API includes EC eligibility as a field on every project, so you can filter the entire 47,000+ project database to only EC-eligible deals.
What qualifies as an energy community?
The IRS defines three categories:
1. Brownfield sites — previously developed, contaminated land (EPA Brownfields registry).
2. Coal closure communities — census tracts with a coal mine that closed after 1999 or a coal plant that closed after 2009, plus adjoining tracts.
3. Fossil fuel employment (FFE) communities — MSAs or non-MSA counties where fossil fuel jobs + tax revenue exceed national thresholds, AND the unemployment rate is at or above the national average.
The FFE category is the largest driver, especially in states like California, Pennsylvania, and Texas where oil & gas employment is concentrated.
Methodology
We matched each project's county against the IRS energy community designations (2023 update) using both the coal closure census tract list and the FFE MSA/non-MSA county list. Projects were geocoded to county using census data for county centroid matching. Coverage: 100% of 47,567 projects checked.
All data is available via the Glass Energy API. Filter by energy_community_eligible=true on the /projects or /deals/itc endpoints.
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