Dept. of Energy Revises Approved Software for Federal Tax Credit for Energy-Efficient Homes
The U.S. Department of Energy has revised standards for approving software programs to calculate compliance to the federal tax credit for energy-efficient homes (Section 45L of the Internal Revenue Code). The revised standard says that the software program must be tested in accordance to the suite of tests contained in RESNET Publication No. 001-16.
The following software has been approved by DOE for calculating the tax credit:
• Ekotrope RATER Version 2.2
• EnergyGauge USA Version 5.1 & 6.0
• REM/Rate v15.4 (and subsequent releases of v15.4.x), v15.6 (and subsequent releases of v15.6.x) and v15.7 (and subsequent releases of v15.7.x)
Software previously approved at the state level has been removed from the DOE Approved Software List. States may determine which entities are eligible to certify the tax credit; they may not approve which software can be used to meet the energy efficiency requirements of the 45L tax credit.