2025 Solar Incentives Guide for Mifflin, OH - Tax Credits & Rebates

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

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

Solar incentives help mitigate the cost of installing solar panels on your home. This category of financial incentives is intended to encourage more homeowners to make the switch to renewable energy. You might qualify for different kinds of incentives, including cash back, discounts or credit towards your monthly utility bill, depending on your situation. Certain incentives come from your specific utility company, county or municipality, some from the state of Ohio and others from the federal government. Some solar incentives you might qualify for are:

• Rebates: Solar rebates might be offered by your local utility company, or by your state or county. These rebates are essentially cash back that is applied after you pay for solar panels and before tax credits are calculated.
• Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC): SRECs and other performance-based incentives are usually handled at the state level. Once your solar panel system meets a predetermined threshold (typically a small amount of energy production), you can receive SRECs that can be sold to your utility company or other buyers. The money you receive from the sale is generally 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. (A tax credit is different from a tax deduction.)
• Net Metering: Net metering factors in after your solar panels are up and running. If you've signed a net metering agreement with your Mifflin utility company, the company will subtract the value of the excess energy your solar system produces from your utility bill each month. In some places, this credit is dollar-for-dollar, while in others you might make back a percentage of the value.
• Tax Exemptions: These could come in the form of property tax exemptions, which can let you ignore the value added by your solar panels when paying property tax on your home. You could also look for exemptions on sales tax at the time of purchase.

Federal Solar Incentives

When thinking about solar incentives, federal incentives might be the first thing that comes to mind. One of the incentives that most people are probably familiar with is the Federal Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC). This incentive is a tax credit for a certain 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. Originally, the tax credit was for 30% of the total cost – for panels, accessories, labor and equipment – although that amount may range from 26-30%, depending on the installation date of your solar system. There is no cap on the amount you can claim.

Have questions about how the ITC applies to your specific situation? Reach out to your local Mifflin solar panel installer to get more information.

The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in August 2022, made some changes to the ITC (as well as renaming it to the Clean Energy Credit). Homeowners are now eligible for a credit of 30% of the total solar system installation costs for projects started after January 1, 2022, and completed before the end of 2032. The credit percentage will then decrease on a yearly basis until the Clean Energy Credit 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. The best way to understand how the new Clean Energy Credit applies to you is to reach out to your local Mifflin solar panel installation expert with your questions.

State & Local Solar Incentives

Federal solar incentives are not your only option; tax credits, rebates and more are often offered at the local or state level. These solar incentives — which may be handled by your county or municipality, or by the state of Ohio — could be offered for only a limited time, or on an ongoing basis.

Next Steps for Installing Solar in Mifflin

There are many types of solar incentives: those given by the federal government, those offered by the Ohio government and those given by local utility companies, to name a few. Solar energy use has increased enormously in the last 15 years, thanks to these incentives. When you're ready to make the change to solar energy, reaching out to your local Mifflin solar panel installation expert is an excellent place to start.