2025 Solar Incentives Guide for Cunningham, IL - Tax Credits & Rebates

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

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

Solar incentives are meant to encourage people to switch their home over to renewable energy by providing financial incentives meant to lower the burden of solar panel installation and use. Different types of incentives, like cash back, discounts or credit towards your monthly utility bill, may be available to you. Certain incentives may be provided via the Illinois government, by your utility company or by county or municipality, while other incentives are federal. Some broad categories of solar incentives include:

• Tax Credits: Tax credits reduce, dollar-for-dollar, the amount of income tax you owe the government. These are different from tax deductions.
• Rebates: Solar companies may help you claim a rebate, or partial refund of your purchase, for your solar system. States or counties will also sometimes offer limited-time rebates. If you receive a rebate, that amount will usually be deducted from the total price before tax credits are calculated.
• Tax Exemptions: These might come in the form of property tax exemptions, which can let you exclude the value added by your solar panels when paying property tax on your house. They may also include exemptions on sales tax at the time of purchase.
• Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC): SRECs can be sold to your utility company (or other buyers) for cash that typically becomes part of your taxable income. Generally, a certain (small) threshold of energy production must be met before your solar system can earn SRECs or similar performance-based incentives. Incentives like these are generally handled by your state government.
• Net Metering: Net metering factors in after your solar panels are up and running. If you have in place a net metering agreement with your Cunningham utility company, it will subtract the value of the excess energy your solar system produces from your utility bill each month. In some places, this credit is dollar-for-dollar, while in others you may receive a refund equivalent to a percentage of the value.

Federal Solar Incentives

Federal solar incentives are likely to be the first thing that you think of when thinking about solar incentives. An incentive many people are likely familiar with is the Federal Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC). This incentive is a tax credit for a given percentage of your solar system's cost.

The ITC is applied to the total cost of solar panel installation, including the panels themselves as well as labor, accessories and equipment. You can claim this credit for panels installed after January 1, 2006, on a primary or secondary residence located in the United States that you own. From its original value of 30% of the total cost, the credit has fluctuated slightly between 26-30%, and you may qualify for varying percentages depending on when your project was completed. There is no maximum claim amount.

Reaching out to your local Cunningham solar panel installer is the best way to understand how the ITC could apply to you.

The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in August 2022, expanded and extended the ITC (as well as retitling it the Clean Energy Credit). The Clean Energy Credit runs until 2035. Any solar installation project that is completed between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2032, may qualify for a 30% tax credit; this amount will decrease slightly each year until the end of the current program. Starting in 2023, it will also be easier to obtain credits for energy storage systems under this new program.

More information about the new Inflation Reduction Act can be found here. To better understand how the new Clean Energy Credit will apply to you, reach out to your local Cunningham solar installation expert.

State & Local Solar Incentives

Some solar incentives may be provided by state and local governments. Like with federal incentives, these may include tax credits, rebates and more. Incentives might be handled by your county or municipality, or by the state of Illinois. Some incentives are available for only a limited time, while others are ongoing.

Next Steps for Installing Solar in Cunningham

There are a variety of solar incentives: those offered by local utility companies, those offered by the Illinois government and those provided by the federal government, to name a few. The use of solar energy has increased enormously in the last 15 years, partially thanks to these incentives. Reach out to your local solar panel installation expert today to discover more about the various programs and to save as much money as possible on a solar system for your Cunningham home.