Tons.
Federal, state and local incentives make solar more affordable. Check out these most current incentives, and let us know if you hear of any new incentives in your area.
Federal
These apply to solar electric (PV) and solar hot water (SHW) Systems:
Homeowner’s can get a Residential Income Tax Credit of 30% of the total cost of an installed system. This incentive is available until 2016 and can be “carried over” each year until it’s used up, or until time is up, whichever comes first.
Washington State
There’s no sales tax on any equipment or labor for solar energy systems 10 kW or smaller.
Not only will your system offset CO2 emissions and lower your utility bills, but Washington State will also pay you a base rate of $0.15 per kWh on ALL energy your system produces, whether it’s used in the building or sent back to the grid. Which means, if “the sun rises,” you’re making money. We know, it almost sounds too good to be true. But it is!
The state sweetened the pot even further by offering additional incentives for installing solar equipment made in Washington. Currently, Silicon Energy (Marysville) and iTek Energy (Bellingham) are hard at work making solar panels and inverters so you can take advantage of these higher incentives. When you buy locally made equipment, the base rate jumps from $0.15 to $0.54 per kWh, speeding up payback and helping to make solar a no-brainer.
Utilities
Some utilities offer rebates, but they are rare. Give us a call to find out if your utility has any additional incentives for solar.
Other
In the future you may also sell Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) during the lifetime of your system, which is pretty sweet. As of right now, no one is buying RECs for residential solar systems in Washington State. We’ll keep you posted as this hopefully changes.
Read more about Washington State’s Solar Incentives.