2025 Solar Incentives Guide for Asbury Park, NJ - Tax Credits & Rebates

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

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

Solar incentives are designed to mitigate the cost of installing a solar panel system on your home. These financial incentives are in place to encourage more people to convert their home partially or fully to renewable energy. Various kinds of incentives, like discounts, cash back or credit towards your monthly utility bill, might be available to you. Certain incentives may be handled by the New Jersey government, by your utility company or by county or municipality, while other incentives are federal. Some broad categories of solar incentives include:

• Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC): SRECs and similar other performance-based incentives might be available to you if your solar system produces more than a specified (typically small) amount of electricity. Performance-based incentives are normally handled by the state government. You can sell the SRECs you receive to your utility company or other buyers, and the money you receive in return is typically considered part of your taxable income.
• Tax Credits: Tax credits are dollar-for-dollar reductions that lower the amount of income tax you owe the government. (This is different from a tax deduction.)
• Net Metering: Net metering factors in once your solar panels are up and running. If you have a net metering agreement in place with your Asbury Park utility company, they will subtract the value of the excess energy your solar system produces from your monthly utility bill. In some locations, this is a dollar-for-dollar credit, while in others you may make back a percentage of the value.
• Tax Exemptions: Tax exemptions may come in two forms. The first is sales tax exemption, applied when you purchase solar panels. The second is property tax exemption, which allows you to exclude the value added by your solar system when calculating property tax for your home.
• Rebates: Rebates, or partial refunds after a purchase, are normally applied prior to any solar tax credits being calculated. Solar rebates can be offered by your local utility company, by your county or by your state.

Federal Solar Incentives

When thinking about solar incentives, you likely think of federal incentives first. You've likely heard of the Federal Solar Investment Tax Credit, or ITC. The ITC is a tax credit that reduces your taxes by a predetermined percentage of the money you spend installing solar panels.

The ITC can be applied to 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, equipment and accessories. You can claim this credit for 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 certain projects may qualify for only 26%, depending on the details. There is no maximum amount you can claim.

To best understand how the ITC could apply to your situation, reach out to your local Asbury Park solar panel installation expert and ask for more information.

The ITC was renewed and increased in scope after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022. It's also now called the Clean Energy Credit. For solar system installations that begin after January 1, 2022, and are completed by the end of 2032, homeowners can apply for a credit for 30% of the total cost. The percentage will then decrease annually until the Clean Energy Credit expires in 2035. The expansion also makes credits for energy storage systems even easier to claim, starting in 2023.

More information about the new Inflation Reduction Act can be found here. Your local Asbury Park solar panel installer can answer your questions and explain how the new Clean Energy Credit applies to you.

State & Local Solar Incentives

In addition to federal solar incentives, there are often also state ones. Tax credits, rebates and more may be available at a more local level. Incentives may be given by your county or municipality, or by the state of New Jersey. Some incentives may be available for only a limited time, while others are ongoing.

Next Steps for Installing Solar in Asbury Park

Solar incentives might be offered by the federal government, the New Jersey government or your local utility company. The growing number of available incentives has contributed to a large increase in solar energy use in the last 15 years. Your local Asbury Park solar panel installation company can give you more information about which incentives you should apply for, and get you feeling good about making the change to renewable energy today.