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

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

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

Solar incentives are meant to help 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 convert their home partially or fully to renewable energy. The incentives might include upfront discounts, cash back or credit towards your monthly utility bill. Some incentives are provided by the federal government, some by the New Jersey government and some by your utility company, county or municipality. Some solar incentives you might qualify for are:

• Rebates: Rebates, or partial refunds after a purchase, are usually given prior to any solar tax credits being calculated. Solar rebates might be given by your local utility company, by your state or by your county.
• 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.)
• Net Metering: Net metering is an incentive you can get once your solar panels are up and running. If you've signed a net metering agreement with your Brookdale utility company, the company will subtract the value of the excess energy produced by your solar system from your monthly utility bill. In some places, this is a dollar-for-dollar credit, while in other places you may receive a refund equivalent to a percentage of the value.
• Tax Exemptions: Tax exemptions may come in one of two forms. The first is sales tax exemption, which is applied at the time you purchase your solar panels. The second is property tax exemption, which allows you to ignore the value added by your solar system when calculating property tax for your home.
• Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC): SRECs can be sold to your utility company (or other buyers) for money that is generally considered part of your taxable income. Typically, a certain (small) threshold of energy production must be met before your solar system is eligible for SRECs or other performance-based incentives. Incentives like these are generally handled at the state level.

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're most likely to have heard of is the Federal Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC), which gives you a credit on your taxes equal to a certain percentage of your solar system's cost.

The ITC applies to a solar system installed on your primary or secondary residence in the United States. The solar system must have been installed on a property you own after January 1, 2006, for you to claim the credit. The ITC originally paid out 30% of all system costs (panels, equipment, accessories and labor), although the covered amount has fluctuated slightly over the last few years between 26-30%. The installation date of your solar system will determine what percentage you are eligible for. There is no cap on the amount you can claim.

To better understand how the ITC could apply to you, call your local Brookdale solar panel installation expert and request more information.

In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act laid out new provisions for the ITC, now referred to as the Clean Energy Credit. The Clean Energy Credit has increased the current credit up to 30% for solar installation projects started after January 1, 2022, and completed by the end of 2032. After 2032, the credit percentage will see a slight decrease annually until the end of the program in 2035. The program expansion also makes claiming credit for energy storage systems easier than ever before, starting in 2023.

Click here to learn more about the new Inflation Reduction Act. To fully understand how the new Clean Energy Credit applies to you, get in touch with your local Brookdale solar installers.

State & Local Solar Incentives

Some solar incentives are often also provided at the state and local level. Like with federal incentives, these may include rebates, tax credits and more. These incentives may be provided by your county or municipality, or by the New Jersey government. Certain incentives are ongoing, while others are available for a limited time.

Next Steps for Installing Solar in Brookdale

There are a number of different solar incentives: those given by local utility companies, those provided by the federal government and those provided by the New Jersey government, to name a few. The use of solar energy has grown tremendously in the last 15 years, partially thanks to these incentives. Your local Brookdale solar panel installation company can provide you with more details about which incentives you might qualify for, and get you started on the path to switching to renewable energy today.