2025 Solar Incentives Guide for Lumberton, NC - Tax Credits & Rebates

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

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

Solar incentives help mitigate the cost of installing a solar panel system on your home. This category of financial incentives is intended to encourage more homeowners to switch their home over to renewable energy. Incentives may include things like discounts, cash back or credit on your utility bill each month. Some incentives are offered by the federal government, while others are offered by the North Carolina government or your specific utility company, county or municipality. Some broad categories of solar incentives include:

• Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC): SRECs and similar performance-based incentives may be available to you if the solar system on your home produces more than a specified (generally small) amount of electricity. This category of incentives is typically handled at the state level. You can sell any SRECs you have to your utility company or other buyers, and the money you receive in return is typically considered part of your taxable income.
• Rebates: A rebate is a partial refund given after you've purchased your solar panels. Rebates may be offered by your local utility company, your county or your state. The discount that rebates offer is normally applied to the price of solar panels before calculating tax credits.
• Net Metering: Be sure to speak with your Lumberton utility company about signing a net metering contract. This allows you to get a credit towards your monthly utility bill 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.
• Tax Credits: Tax credits are dollar-for-dollar reductions in the amount of income tax that you owe the federal government. (A tax credit is different from a tax deduction.)
• Tax Exemptions: These can come in the form of property tax exemptions, which let you ignore the value of your solar system when paying taxes on your house. You may also qualify for an exemption on sales tax at the time of purchase.

Federal Solar Incentives

Federal incentives are the type of incentives that you are most likely to have some knowledge of. A federal incentive that most people are likely to be familiar with is the Federal Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC). This is a tax credit for a specific percentage of the cost of your solar system.

The ITC applies towards solar systems installed after January 1, 2006, and lets you 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 the amount you can claim may range between 26-30%. There is no maximum amount you can claim.

Your local Lumberton solar panel installer can offer more information about the ITC and how it may apply to your situation.

In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act expanded and extended the ITC, now referred to as the Clean Energy Credit. For solar systems installed between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2032, homeowners can apply for a credit for 30% of the total cost. After 2033, the percentage will decrease annually until the Clean Energy Credit ends in 2035. Beginning in 2023, it will also be easier to claim credits for energy storage systems under this new program.

More information about the new Inflation Reduction Act can be found here. To understand how the new Clean Energy Credit will apply to you, get in touch with your local Lumberton solar installers.

State & Local Solar Incentives

Rebates, tax credits and more can be claimed at multiple levels. On top of federal solar incentives, there are often state and local ones, too. These solar incentives — which might be provided by the state of North Carolina, or by your county or municipality — could be offered for only a limited time, or on an ongoing basis.

Next Steps for Installing Solar in Lumberton

Solar incentives may come from the North Carolina government, the federal government or your local utility company. The variety of available incentives has helped nationwide use of solar energy increase greatly in the last 15 years. We recommend talking to your local Lumberton solar installer for more information about these incentives and to make sure that you're getting the largest number possible for your solar system.