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

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

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

Solar incentives are meant to help mitigate the cost of installing solar panels on your home. These financial incentives are intended to encourage more Americans to switch to renewable energy. You may be eligible for various kinds of incentives, including discounts, cash back or monthly utility bill credits, depending on your situation. Some incentives come from your specific utility company, county or municipality, some from the state of Ohio and others from the federal government. Some broad categories of solar incentives include:

• Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC): Generally, solar systems that produce more than a specified (usually small) amount of electricity will qualify for SRECs or similar performance-based incentives. SRECs and similar incentives are typically offered at the state level. You can sell SRECs to your utility company or another buyer, and this is usually considered part of your taxable income.
• Tax Credits: Tax credits are dollar-for-dollar reductions (not deductions) in how much income tax you owe the government.
• Rebates: A solar rebate is a partial refund given after you've purchased your solar panels. These 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.
• Net Metering: Make sure you talk to your Pierce utility company about signing a net metering agreement. This will allow you to receive credit towards your utility bill every month for the value of excess energy your solar panels generate. You may receive either a dollar-for-dollar credit or a percentage of the value.
• Tax Exemptions: Sales tax exemptions go into effect at the time of purchase for your solar panels. Property tax exemptions allow you to exclude the value that your solar panels add when you calculate how much property tax you need to pay.

Federal Solar Incentives

Federal incentives are the type of incentives that you are most likely to have heard of. One of the incentives many people are likely to be familiar with is the Federal Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC). The ITC is a tax credit for a certain percentage of your solar system's cost.

The ITC can be applied to the total cost of installing solar panels, including the panels themselves as well as equipment, labor and accessories. This credit can be claimed for panels installed after January 1, 2006, on a primary or secondary residence located in the United States that you own. Originally set at 30% of total costs, the credit has fluctuated over time, and you may qualify for different amounts depending on when your project was completed. There is no maximum amount you can claim.

Talking to your local Pierce solar panel installer is the best way to understand how the ITC may apply to your situation.

In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act made revisions to the ITC, now titled the Clean Energy Credit. With the new provisions, solar installation projects begun after January 1, 2022, and finished by December 31, 2032, may be eligible for a 30% tax credit. This percentage will then decrease slightly each year until the end of the current Clean Energy Credit in 2035. The expansion to the program also makes claiming credit for energy storage systems easier than ever before, starting in 2023.

More information about the new Inflation Reduction Act can be found here. Your local Pierce solar panel installation experts can answer your questions and explain how the new Clean Energy Credit may apply to you.

State & Local Solar Incentives

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

Next Steps for Installing Solar in Pierce

You can receive solar incentives from the Ohio government and the federal government, as well as from your local utility company. The increased availability of solar initiatives in the past 15 years has helped increase nationwide solar energy use enormously. Speaking with your local Pierce solar panel installation expert is the best first step towards getting the most money possible when you switch to solar energy.