Bolstered by tax credits and provisions within the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina, is the first college in the Southeast and the 13th in the country to achieve carbon neutrality, seven years ahead of its 2030 goal. The college is producing on-site renewable energy, improving the efficiency of building operations, and purchasing carbon offsetting credits, with a goal of eventually eliminating all fossil fuel consumption within the campus.

One of the most significant elements of Catawba College’s plan continues to focus on geothermal energy. The IRA’s direct pay for nonprofits and tax-exempt entities provisions provide significant funding toward the geothermal system. Nonprofits like Catawba College can claim 30% of the total costs of installing ground-source heat pumps. Using direct pay or elective pay, nonprofits can monetize federal clean energy tax credits even though it does not pay taxes. 

There is an added emphasis on solar power in the college’s current plan, thanks to the price of solar panels decreasing, and new benefits for clean energy made possible through the IRA. When the college installed solar before the IRA and its direct pay program, they had to go through complicated hoops to receive tax credits as a tax-exempt organization. The IRA has made the process much simpler and more accessible.

Catawba College’s new solar panels are expected to save the college about $5 million over the next 20 years, and reduce the campus’s annual carbon emissions by 1,050 metric tons, equivalent to taking 193 vehicles off the road each year. Since their installation, the solar panels have generated about 7 million kilowatt-hours of locally produced clean energy, offsetting the need to buy power from the fossil fuel-based power grid.