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Version 00 · Introduced in House · Feb 12, 2025
Protect Agriculture, Nutrients, and Essential Lands from Solar Act or the PANELS Act
This bill excludes expenses for solar property placed in service on prime or unique farmland from the energy investment tax credit. The bill also excludes solar facilities placed on prime or unique farmland from the clean electricity production tax credit.
Under current law, businesses may be able to claim an energy investment tax credit for qualified solar property placed into service before January 1, 2025. This bill excludes expenses for solar property placed into service on prime or unique farmland (e.g., land with the best combination of physical and chemical characteristics for the production of food and other related uses) from the energy investment tax credit.
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Further, under current law, a business may also be able to claim the clean electricity production tax credit for the production of electricity using a qualified facility that has no greenhouse gas emissions. The amount of the tax credit is based on the amount of electricity produced and sold by a qualified facility placed into service in 2025 or after. This bill modifies the definition of qualified facility to exclude solar facilities placed on prime or unique farmland.
People & committees
Rep. Bost, Mike [R-IL-12] · R–IL
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We also preserved the text version used in the PlainBill explanation below.
No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Jun 8, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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PlainBill explanation
Based on the full Introduced in House · 2025-02-12 text. This explanation has not received human editorial review. This overview describes the proposal’s major provisions; it does not establish what its real-world effects would be.
This proposal seeks to restrict specified federal tax credits for solar projects on prime or unique farmland, affecting taxpayers seeking credits for those projects. It adds explicit location restrictions to energy-credit and clean-electricity-production-credit eligibility definitions, but the precise operation of its insertion into section 48(a)(3) cannot be verified without the existing statutory sentence. The amendments would apply to property placed in service after enactment.
Credits amended to exclude property located on prime or unique farmland
Section 48(a)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking the period at the end and inserting , or property which is located on prime farmland or unique farmland if such property is used for generating solar energy.
(v) which, in the case of property used for the purpose of generating solar energy, is not located on prime farmland or unique farmland.
The term qualified facility shall not include any facility used for generating solar energy if such facility is located on prime farmland or unique farmland (as such terms are defined in section 48(c)(9)).
The amendments made by this section shall apply to property placed in service after the date of the enactment of this Act.
The proposal names the bill the Protect Agriculture, Nutrients, and Essential Lands from Solar Act, or PANELS Act.
This Act may be cited as the Protect Agriculture, Nutrients, and Essential Lands from Solar Act or the PANELS Act.
For the energy credit, the proposal would replace the final period in Internal Revenue Code section 48(a)(3) with language referring to solar-generating property on prime or unique farmland. The section heading indicates an intended exclusion, but the existing statutory sentence is not supplied, so the precise operation of this insertion cannot be verified.
Credits amended to exclude property located on prime or unique farmland
Energy property Section 48(a)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking the period at the end and inserting , or property which is located on prime farmland or unique farmland if such property is used for generating solar energy.
The proposal would also add a condition to the qualified-property definition in section 48(a)(5)(D): property used to generate solar energy must not be located on prime or unique farmland.
Qualified property Section 48(a)(5)(D) of such Code is amended
(v) which, in the case of property used for the purpose of generating solar energy, is not located on prime farmland or unique farmland.
Within section 48(e)(2)(A)'s definition of a qualified solar and wind facility, the proposal would require a facility used to generate solar energy to be located outside prime or unique farmland.
Qualified solar and wind facility Section 48(e)(2)(A) of such Code is amended
(iv) which, in the case of a facility used for generating solar energy, is not located on prime farmland or unique farmland.
For the clean electricity production credit, the proposal would exclude solar-generating facilities on prime or unique farmland from the definition of a qualified facility in section 45Y(b)(1). It would also update subparagraph (A)'s cross-reference to include the new subparagraph (E).
Clean electricity production credit Section 45Y(b)(1) is amended
in subparagraph (A), by striking subparagraphs (B), (C), and (D), and inserting subparagraphs (B), (C), (D), and (E)
The term qualified facility shall not include any facility used for generating solar energy if such facility is located on prime farmland or unique farmland (as such terms are defined in section 48(c)(9)).
The proposal would add section 48(c)(9), incorporating the definitions of prime farmland and unique farmland from part 657 of title 7 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The bill does not reproduce those classification criteria.
Section 48(c) of such Code is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph: (9) Prime farmland; unique farmland The terms prime farmland and unique farmland have the meaning given such terms in part 657 of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations.
All of these credit amendments would apply to property placed in service after the date of enactment. If enacted, the effective date would therefore depend on when the bill becomes law, rather than a fixed calendar date.
The amendments made by this section shall apply to property placed in service after the date of the enactment of this Act.
The supplied actions snapshot, updated June 8, 2026, records introduction in the House and referral to the House Committee on Ways and Means on February 12, 2025.
Source snapshot updated 2026-06-08T17:52:56Z. 2025-02-12: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. 2025-02-12: Introduced in House
A closer look
Reviewed version: Introduced in House · 2025-02-12. These findings describe provisions and who may benefit; they are not judgments of waste, corruption, or motive.
This review covers the supplied bill text. “None identified” does not rule out provisions in later versions or accompanying reports and disclosures.
Provisions outside the bill’s main subject, or policy changes attached to appropriations.
None identified in the reviewed text
No unrelated provision or policy change attached to appropriations was identified after reviewing the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish the contents or attachment history of other versions or accompanying materials.
Spending directed to particular recipients or places outside ordinary competitive or formula-based allocation.
None identified in the reviewed text
No congressionally directed spending for particular recipients or places was identified after reviewing the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials. Member requests, earmark disclosures, and committee or conference materials were not supplied.
Narrow exceptions, exemptions, or preferential treatment that warrant a closer look.
None identified in the reviewed text
No materially narrow benefit, special exemption, or preferential exception was identified after reviewing the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Full text preserved for this analysis. Legislative record snapshot: Jun 8, 2026. How PlainBill uses AI