If you’re thinking of installing a solar system on your house, you may be surprised to learn that there are multiple tax incentives available to you. For photovoltaic or solar water heat projects, the federal government will give a personal tax credit worth 30% of the initial cost of the project with a maximum of $2,000. Commercial systems can receive a 30% tax credit with no limit from the federal government. The State of Illinois provides a rebate worth 30% of the initial cost of the project with a maximum of $10,000. Since the initial costs of installing a photovoltaic system are usually above $33,000, residential customers can generally receive the full $10,000 rebate.
The federal incentive is the minimum amount of money that one can expect to receive when planning the production of a solar array. To see if you qualify for either or both incentives, visit the database of state and federal incentives for renewables & energy efficiency at: http://www.dsireusa.org. Solar water heating systems are almost always less expensive to install than photovoltaic systems. After all of the incentives, the cost of installing a solar water heating system can cost as little as $1,600!
To determine how long it takes to earn money on a solar investment, check out the following websites:
• The American Solar Energy Society, http://www.ases.org/, has a link to a solar estimator (and a list of solar professionals in your area) on its website.
• The Sharp Corporation, http://www.sharpusa.com, has a solar estimator listed under its solar power products.
As a Power Smart Pricing participant, excess electric energy produced by a solar array can be sold back to your utility company at the hourly rate during the particular hour that your home was a net producer of electricity. At the end of the billing cycle, your energy cost/credit is the sum of each hour’s energy cost or credit based on whether you were a net producer or user for each hour. At the end of each billing cycle if your electricity use is more than the amount you produced, you will have delivery charges based on your net use. However, if your system produces more than the amount you used, a credit for delivery charges based on your net production is created. Net metering customers have these credits applied toward other customer charges on the current bill. Any excess credits are also applied on subsequent bills for up to a 12 month period. After which, any existing credits will be nullified.
August 20, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Just to update, with the big bailout plan that passed congress, the $2000 limit on the federal tax credit was lifted. This means the feds will now pick up 30 percent of the cost of the system, which is a big deal! I do believe, however, that this 30 percent comes after the state rebate is deducted from the cost of the system. Regardless, it's a huge step in the right direction.
Post a Comment