Authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), this new program will provide tax credits to manufacturers who produce clean energy equipment.

The ARRA created a new tax credit program by authorizing Treasury to provide developers with an investment tax credit of 30 percent for facilities that manufacture particular types of energy equipment. Qualifying manufacturers will produce: solar, wind and geothermal energy equipment; fuel cells, microturbines and batteries; electric cars; electric grids to support the transmission of renewable energy; energy conservation technologies; and, equipment that captures and sequesters carbon dioxide or reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

The manufacturing tax credit is capped at $2.3 billion, and credits are available for two years or until the cap is reached. Companies can file applications for the first round of credit awards through Oct. 16, 2009, and can expect to learn whether their applications are successful by Jan. 15, 2010.