IRA Elective Pay for K-12 School Districts
If your district completed a solar, heat pump, storage, or EV charging project after January 1, 2023, the IRS owes you a direct cash payment. No competition, no application pool — if the project qualifies and the filing is correct, the payment is guaranteed. Fewer than 300 districts have claimed it out of 130,000 eligible buildings.
Contact UsThe Gap
What We Do
We calculate your eligible IRA cash payment and applicable bonus adders — energy community, domestic content, and low-income community designations — from your project data. You receive a written payment estimate before any commitment.
We handle IRS pre-registration via the CEPAM portal, prepare Form 990-T and Form 3800, and coordinate review and sign-off with a licensed tax professional prior to submission. Every step is documented.
We manage the full timeline from filing through IRS payment — typically 12–18 months. For districts that cannot wait, we introduce qualified lenders who advance against the receivable.
Qualifying Projects
| Technology | IRS Credit Section | Filing Status |
|---|---|---|
| Solar installations | Sec 48E | Active |
| Ground-source heat pumps | Sec 48 | Active |
| Battery and energy storage | Sec 48E | Active |
| EV charging infrastructure | Sec 30C | Active |
| Electric school buses | Sec 45W | Retrospective filings only |
All projects must have been placed in service after December 31, 2022. Credit deadlines and eligibility rules vary by technology. We assess each project individually.
Process
A 15–20 minute call to confirm your project type and eligibility. We then send a short intake form to collect the project details needed to build your payment estimate.
We identify applicable IRS credits, stack eligible bonus adders, and produce a written estimate of the cash payment your district will receive. No commitment required to receive this.
Pre-registration, document preparation, licensed tax professional review, and IRS submission. We run the process; you approve each step.
The IRS issues a direct cash payment to your district. We invoice our fee only after payment is confirmed.
Pricing
School Energy Partners works on a contingency basis. There is no retainer, no engagement fee, and no invoice until your district receives an IRS payment. Our fee is a percentage of the IRS payment received. If the IRS does not pay, you owe us nothing.
About
School Energy Partners was founded to close the gap between available federal clean energy funding and the districts that have earned it but never claimed it.
Our background spans clean energy research, emissions modeling, climate technology, and advisory services. Prior work includes applied research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory advising the U.S. Department of Energy on transportation electrification and clean energy pathways; co-founding a climate SaaS company providing emissions measurement infrastructure to financial institutions; and senior product and sustainability roles at climate fintech firms managing carbon data platforms and enterprise clean energy products.
That depth — in the technical substance of clean energy projects and the compliance infrastructure required to claim them — is what we bring to every elective pay engagement.
Get Started
No forms to fill out ahead of time. No commitment required. A 15 minute call is all it takes to confirm whether your district qualifies and what your payment could be.