2025 Solar Incentives Guide for Sarasota, FL - Tax Credits & Rebates

What Solar Tax Credits, Incentives, and Rebates are Available in Sarasota?

Source: https://www.dsireusa.org/

Solar incentives mitigate the cost of installing a solar panel system on your home. This category of financial incentives is in place to encourage more Americans to switch to renewable energy. Incentives might include things like discounts, cash back or credit on your utility bill each month. Some incentives are handled federally, while others are offered by the state of Florida or by your specific utility company, county or municipality. Some solar incentives you might qualify for are:

• Net Metering: Make sure you speak to your Sarasota utility company about signing a net metering contract. This will allow you to receive credit towards your utility bill every month for the value of excess energy generated by your solar panels. You could receive either a dollar-for-dollar credit or a percentage of the value.
• Rebates: Rebates, or cash back after a purchase, are typically given before any solar tax credits are calculated. Rebates can be offered by your local utility company, by your county or by your state.
• Tax Exemptions: These could come in the form of property tax exemptions, which let you ignore the value added by your solar panels when paying property tax on your home. You may also qualify for an exemption on sales tax at the time of purchase.
• Tax Credits: Tax credits reduce, dollar-for-dollar, the total amount of tax you owe the federal government. These are different from tax deductions.

Federal Solar Incentives

Federal incentives are the type of incentives that you are most likely to have heard of. You may have heard of the Federal Solar Investment Tax Credit, or ITC. This incentive is a tax credit that reduces your taxes by a certain percentage of the money you spend on solar panels for your home.

The ITC can be applied to solar panels installed after January 1, 2006, on a primary or secondary residence in the United States that you own. Initially, the credit applied to 30% of the total cost – for panels, equipment, accessories and labor – although it may range from 26-30%, depending on the installation date of your solar system. There is no cap on the amount you can claim.

To best understand how the ITC will apply to your situation, contact your local Sarasota solar panel installation expert and request more information.

In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act laid out new provisions for the ITC, now dubbed the Clean Energy Credit. With the new provisions, solar installation projects started after January 1, 2022, and completed by the end of 2032, might qualify for a 30% tax credit. The amount of the credit will then decrease slightly each year until the end of the current Clean Energy Credit in 2035. Starting in 2023, the expansion to the program will also make credits for energy storage systems even easier to claim.

Click here to learn more about the new Inflation Reduction Act. Your local Sarasota solar panel installation expert is the best person to answer your questions about the new Clean Energy Credit and how it will apply to you.

State & Local Solar Incentives

Some solar incentives may be offered at the local or state level. Like with federal incentives, these may include rebates, tax credits and more. These incentives — which might be given by your county or municipality, or by the state of Florida — may be offered for only a limited time, or on an ongoing basis.

Next Steps for Installing Solar in Sarasota

Solar incentives may come from the Florida government, the federal government or your local utility company. The growing number of available incentives has helped nationwide use of solar energy increase greatly in the last 15 years. Call your local solar panel installer today to learn more and to save the most money possible on solar panels for your Sarasota home.