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

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

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

Solar incentives are designed to make renewable energy usage more affordable via financial incentives for individuals who install solar panels on their homes. Incentives may include things like discounts, cash back or monthly utility bill credits. Some incentives are handled federally, while others are offered by the state of Illinois or your specific utility company, county or municipality. Some broad categories of solar incentives include:

• Tax Exemptions: Your solar system could qualify for exemptions on both sales and property tax. Sales tax exemptions are effective at the time of purchase. Property tax exemptions let you ignore the added value of the solar panels when you are calculating property taxes on your home.
• Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC): SRECs are credits that can be sold to your utility company (or other buyers) for cash that is generally considered part of your taxable income. Typically, there is a small threshold of energy production to meet before your solar system qualifies for SRECs or similar performance-based incentives. Incentives like these are normally handled at the state level.
• Rebates: Solar rebates can be provided by your local utility company, or by your county or state. These rebates are essentially partial refunds that are applied after you pay for solar panels and before tax credits are calculated.
• Net Metering: Net metering factors in once your solar panels are up and running. If you've signed a net metering agreement with your Deerfield utility company, the company 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 other places you may be refunded a percentage of the value.
• Tax Credits: Tax credits are dollar-for-dollar reductions that lower the amount of income tax you owe the federal government. (A tax credit is different from a tax deduction.)

Federal Solar Incentives

Federal incentives are the type of incentives that you are most likely to have some familiarity with. The solar incentive that you may be most familiar with is the Federal Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC), which gives you a credit on your taxes equal to a specified percentage of your solar system's cost.

The ITC covers solar systems installed after January 1, 2006, and allows you to deduct from your taxes a percentage of the total cost of solar panels, labor, accessories and equipment. This credit can apply towards solar panels installed on a primary or secondary residence in the United States that you own. The original amount you could claim was 30% of the total cost, although depending on when the project was completed, your credit may range from 26-30%. There is no maximum amount you can claim.

To more fully understand how the ITC might apply to your situation, get in touch with your local Deerfield solar panel installation expert and ask for more information.

In August 2022, the ITC (now referred to as the Clean Energy Credit) was bolstered by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. The Clean Energy Credit re-raises the credit up to 30% for solar installation projects started after January 1, 2022, and completed by the end of 2032. After 2032, the percentage will see a slight decrease annually until the end of the program in 2035. The program expansion also makes it easier to get credit for energy storage systems, beginning in 2023.

More information about the new Inflation Reduction Act can be found here. The easiest way to learn more about how the new Clean Energy Credit might apply to you is to get in touch with your local Deerfield solar panel installation expert.

State & Local Solar Incentives

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

Next Steps for Installing Solar in Deerfield

The variety of available solar incentives has contributed greatly to the increase in the use of solar power nationwide over the last 15 years. You might qualify for solar incentives from your local utility company, the Illinois government or the federal government. Getting in touch with your local Deerfield solar panel installation expert is a great first step towards getting the most money possible when you switch to solar energy.