Criteria for qualifying facilities and application procedures are contained in the rulemaking for this program. REPI complements sections 1914 and 1916 of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which provide tax incentives to certain private sector entities for certain types of new renewable energy generation facilities. The application of these changes to the U.S. Tax Code is administered by the Internal Revenue Service. The REPI program is managed by the Department of Energy. Procedures for annual payments to qualifying facilities for the REPI program are contained in the rulemaking.
Payments are dependent upon the availability of annual appropriations.
If there are insufficient appropriations to make full payments for electric production from all qualifying facilities, tier 1 applicants receive incentive payments first. Tier 1 receives either full payments or pro rata payments if funds are insufficient to cover all requests. If funds are available after making full payments to these facilities, payments from the remaining funds are then made to tier 2 qualifying facilities. These facilities use open-loop biomass technologies, such as landfill methane gas, biomass digester gas, and plant waste material that is cofired in a generation facility to generate electricity. If there are insufficient funds to make full payments to all tier 2 qualifying facilities, payments are made to those facilities on a pro rata basis.