How much can you save with solar incentives in Durham?
That really depends on the installed power generation capacity of your solar system. Your system size determines both cost savings and financial incentives. However, you should know of all the sources which will contribute to your savings, earnings, and eventually, profits from going solar. That’s the purpose of this post.
We’ll give you a definitive list of financial incentives available to residential solar buyers in CT.
Federal Solar Tax Credit (ITC)
The federal solar tax credit is designed for booking solar ownership among homeowners. It helps you get a flat 26% reduction off the system cost on your annual income tax liability.
Two things you should know when claiming this tax credit. If you’ve already paid your annual income taxes, you can get the difference amount as rebates. Also, your income tax liability should be big enough to take full advantage of this tax credit. If your income tax liability is smaller than 26% of your solar system’s cost, then your rebate will be limited to the tax liability but can roll over to the following years.
Tax Exemptions
Your solar system is exempt from sales taxes, including both the equipment and the installation services. Complementing the sales tax waiver, the state of Connecticut has also waived off property taxes on solar installation. What this means is that you don’t have to pay taxes on the value appreciation of your property resulting from the addition of a solar system.
Renewable Energy Sources Program
Under this program, homeowners get two options.
- Choose a netting tariff (similar to net metering in many ways) or
- Choose a ‘buy all’ tariff, whereby they sell all their solar power to their utility company for quarterly payments.
Netting tariff subscribers can also benefit from the renewable energy certificates (REC) they earn from solar power generation. Homeowners earn 1 REC for every 1 kWh of solar energy they generate, and their utility company will buy these RECs from them. RECs can easily fetch a few hundred dollars annually, in addition to other incentives.
Energy Storage Solutions
One of the most brilliant financial incentives designed to increase distributed power storage across Connecticut is the Energy Storage Solutions program. It offers solar buyers both – an upfront rebate and a performance-based incentive (PBI) to solar buyers.
The upfront rebate is calculated based on the installed capacity of your solar panels. On the other hand, the PBI is based on the amount of solar power supplied by your system to the grid during peak-demand periods.
