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

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

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

Solar incentives are meant to help mitigate the cost of installing a solar panel system on your home. These financial incentives are designed to encourage more people to switch to renewable energy. Incentives can include things like discounts, cash back or monthly utility bill credits. Some incentives are offered by the federal government, while others are offered by the Ohio government or your specific utility company, county or municipality. Some solar incentives you might qualify for are:

• Tax Exemptions: These might 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.
• Rebates: Solar companies may help you claim a rebate, or partial refund after purchase, for your solar panels. Counties or states will also sometimes offer limited-time rebates. The value of a rebate will usually be deducted from your total price before tax credits are calculated.
• Net Metering: Net metering is an incentive you can get after your solar system is up and running. If you have in place a net metering agreement with your Grove City utility company, it will subtract the value of the excess energy produced by your solar system from your monthly utility bill. In some areas, this is a dollar-for-dollar credit, while in other areas you may get refunded a percentage of the value.
• Tax Credits: Unlike tax deductions, tax credits are dollar-for-dollar reductions in the amount of income tax that you owe the federal government.
• Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC): SRECs and similar performance-based incentives might be available to you if the solar system on your home produces more than a specified (typically small) amount of electricity. This category of incentives is generally handled by the state government. You can sell any SRECs you have to your utility company or other buyers, and the money you receive in return is generally considered part of your taxable income.

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Federal Solar Incentives

When thinking about solar incentives, you likely think of federal incentives first. You may have heard of the Federal Solar Investment Tax Credit, or ITC. The ITC is a tax credit equal to a predetermined percentage of the money you spend installing solar panels.

The ITC applies to the value of solar panels 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 be eligible for the credit. Originally, the ITC covered 30% of all costs (panels, equipment, labor and accessories), although this amount has fluctuated slightly over the last few years between 26-30%. The amount you qualify for will depend on when your solar system was installed. There is no cap on the amount you can claim.

To better understand exactly how much the ITC could save you, speak with your local Grove City solar panel installer.

The ITC has been renewed and expanded following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022. It's also now called the Clean Energy Credit. The Clean Energy Credit re-raises the credit up to 30% for solar systems installed between 2022 and 2032. After this, the percentage will be reduced slightly each year until the program expires in 2035. Starting in 2023, the expansion to the program will also make credits for energy storage systems even easier to claim.

More information about the new Inflation Reduction Act can be found here. Your local Grove City solar panel installers are the best people to answer your questions about the new Clean Energy Credit and how it applies to you.

State & Local Solar Incentives

Some solar incentives are often also offered at the local or state level. Similar to federal incentives, these can include rebates, tax credits and more. These solar incentives — which might be given by the state of Ohio, or by your county or municipality — may be offered for only a limited time, or on an ongoing basis.

Next Steps for Installing Solar in Grove City

Nationwide solar energy use has gone up tremendously in the last 15 years, in part thanks to the growth in the number of solar incentives. You can obtain these incentives from the federal government, the Ohio government or your local utility company. We recommend talking to your local Grove City solar installation expert to learn more about these incentives and to make sure that you're getting all the money you can for your solar panels.