Solar PPA prices dip in Q2 while wind climbs as July 4 tax credit deadline looms, reports LevelTen

This is mostly a story about the wholesale power market, not something that changes what a homeowner pays directly, but it's worth understanding the backdrop. A new industry report shows big companies buying large-scale solar and wind power under long-term contracts (called power purchase agreements, or PPAs) saw solar prices dip 4.8% in the second quarter of 2026, largely because of a steep drop in California. Wind prices, by contrast, climbed 5.5% for the quarter and are up 17.5% over the past year, driven by higher fuel and shipping costs and a slowdown in federal permitting for new wind projects.

The bigger issue looming over the market is a July 4 deadline tied to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. After that date, no new wind or solar projects will qualify for federal tax credits, effectively freezing the pool of subsidized projects. Projects that already qualify still have to be up and running by the end of 2030 to keep that tax credit. Once the eligible project pool stops growing, prices for these contracts are expected to rise further, since developers will have less subsidized capacity to offer.

None of this sets rates for individual homes directly, since it covers contracts between corporations and large solar or wind farms. But it points to a broader trend of tightening federal clean-energy tax incentives and rising costs for new renewable projects, which is useful context if you are tracking whether federal support for clean energy is expanding or shrinking.