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

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

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

Solar incentives are intended to make renewable energy usage more affordable via financial incentives to help people install solar panels on their homes. Incentives can include things like discounts, cash back or credit towards your monthly utility bill. Some incentives are provided by the federal government, while others are provided by the state of Ohio or by your utility company, county or municipality. Some broad categories of solar incentives include:

• Rebates: A solar rebate is a partial refund after the purchase of your solar system. Rebates could be offered by your local utility company, your state or your county. The discount that rebates offer is normally applied to the price of solar panels before calculating tax credits.
• Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC): SRECs and other similar performance-based incentives are generally handled by your state government. Once your solar panel system meets a predetermined threshold (usually a small amount of energy production), you are eligible to receive SRECs that you can then sell to your utility company or other buyers. The money you receive is generally considered part of your taxable income.
• Tax Credits: Unlike tax deductions, tax credits are dollar-for-dollar reductions in the amount of income tax that you owe the federal government.
• Net Metering: Be sure to talk to your Franklin utility company about signing a net metering contract. This allows you to receive credit towards your monthly utility bill for the value of excess energy your solar panels generate. You could receive either a dollar-for-dollar credit or a percentage of the value.
• Tax Exemptions: Tax exemptions can come in one of two forms. First, there 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.

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Federal Solar Incentives

Federal incentives are the kind of incentives that you are most likely to have some familiarity with. It's likely that you've heard of the Federal Solar Investment Tax Credit, or ITC. The ITC is a tax credit that reduces your taxes by a specified percentage of the money you spend on solar panels for your home.

The ITC was originally for 30% of the cost of installing solar panels, and has fluctuated slightly over the years between 26-30%. The percentage you qualify for will depend on when your solar system was installed. The total installation cost includes the panels themselves as well as the cost of equipment, labor and accessories. There is no maximum claim amount. The ITC can be applied to solar panels installed after January 1, 2006, on your primary or secondary residence. The residence must be owned by you and in the United States.

Your local Franklin solar panel installation expert can provide you with more information about the ITC and how it applies to your situation.

In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act laid out new provisions for the ITC, now titled the Clean Energy Credit. The Clean Energy Credit bolsters the current credit, increasing it up to 30% for solar installations undertaken between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2032. At this point, the credit percentage will see a slight decrease annually until the program expires in 2035. Starting in 2023, the expansion will also make credits for energy storage systems even easier to claim.

More information about the new Inflation Reduction Act can be found here. The best way to fully understand how the new Clean Energy Credit might apply to you is to get in touch with your local Franklin solar panel company.

State & Local Solar Incentives

Some solar incentives are often also provided at the state and local level. As with federal incentives, these may include rebates, tax credits and more. Some incentives are ongoing, while others are offered for only a limited time. These local incentives might come from your county or municipality, or from the Ohio government.

Next Steps for Installing Solar in Franklin

Solar incentives might come from the federal government, the Ohio government or your local utility company. The large number of available incentives has contributed to a large increase in solar energy use in the last 15 years. We recommend talking to your local Franklin solar installation company for more information about these incentives and to make sure that you're getting the most money possible for your solar system.