2024 Solar Incentives Guide for Ashland, OH - Tax Credits & Rebates

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

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

Solar incentives are designed to make renewable energy usage more affordable via financial incentives for those who install solar panels on their homes. Incentives might include things like discounts, cash back or credit on your utility bill each month. Some incentives are handled federally, while others are provided by the state of Ohio or by your utility company, county or municipality. Some broad categories of solar incentives include:

• Tax Exemptions: Your solar system might qualify for both sales tax and property tax exemptions. Sales tax exemptions are applied at the time of purchase. Property tax exemptions allow you to ignore the value that solar panels add when you are calculating property taxes on your home.
• Net Metering: Net metering factors in after your solar system is up and running. If you have in place a net metering agreement with your Ashland utility company, it will subtract the value of the excess energy your solar system produces from your utility bill each month. In some areas, this is a dollar-for-dollar credit, while in other places you may receive a refund equivalent to a percentage of the value.
• Rebates: Rebates, or partial refunds after a purchase, are normally applied prior to any solar tax credits being calculated. These rebates might be provided by your local utility company, by your state or by your county.
• Tax Credits: Tax credits are dollar-for-dollar reductions that lower the amount of income tax you owe the government. (A tax credit is different from a tax deduction.)
• Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC): SRECs and other similar performance-based incentives are generally handled by your state government. Once your solar system meets the qualification threshold (usually a small amount of energy production), you can receive SRECs that you can then sell to your utility company or other buyers. The money you make from the sale is usually considered part of your taxable income.

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Federal Solar Incentives

When you think about solar incentives, you likely think of federal incentives first. 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 can be applied to solar systems installed after January 1, 2006, on a primary or secondary residence that you own in the United States. The credit initially covered 30% of the total cost – for panels, accessories, equipment and labor – although that amount may range from 26-30%, depending on when your solar system was installed. There is no cap on the amount you can claim.

To better understand how the ITC might apply to your situation, get in touch with your local Ashland solar panel installer and ask for more information.

The ITC was both renewed and expanded by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022. It's also now called the Clean Energy Credit. The Clean Energy Credit has increased the current credit up to 30% for solar installations undertaken between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2032. After 2032, the credit percentage will see a slight decrease annually until the program expires in 2035. The program expansion also makes claiming credit for energy storage systems easier than ever before, beginning in 2023.

More information about the new Inflation Reduction Act can be found here. To better understand how the new Clean Energy Credit might apply to you, get in touch with your local Ashland solar installation expert.

State & Local Solar Incentives

Tax credits, rebates and more might be claimed at multiple levels. In addition to federal solar incentives, there are often state and local ones, too. Incentives may be provided by the state of Ohio, or by your county or municipality. Certain incentives are available for only a limited time, while others are ongoing.

Next Steps for Installing Solar in Ashland

Nationwide solar energy use has significantly increased in the last 15 years, in part due to the increase in availability of solar incentives. You can obtain these incentives from the Ohio government, the federal government or your local utility company. Talking to your local Ashland solar panel installer is a great first step towards getting all the incentives you qualify for when you switch to solar energy.