Solar incentives differ from area to area. Depending on their availability, they can make going solar more affordable and save you money!
A solar incentive is a government program that pays you money to switch to solar. There are many different types of solar incentives. They range from one-time tax credits or cash payments to continued payments over the life of your system. This article will cover the main types of solar incentives.
One of the most important solar incentives available in the U.S. is the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC). The ITC is a federal program that offers tax credits to home and business owners who invest in solar projects for their properties. It was enacted in 2006 and will expire at the beginning of 2024. For 2022, 26% of the total purchase price of your solar system can be deducted from your income taxes owed to the federal government the following fiscal year. In 2023, the ITC is set to reduce to 22% and will expire in 2024.
Besides the ITC, many states have their own solar incentive programs. States such as California, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Maryland have some of the best incentives in the nation, but incentives to go solar can be found anywhere. Common programs include:
These are just a few examples of solar incentives that can greatly reduce the cost of going solar. There are many different types of solar incentives, and not all of them will be available in every area. DSIRE manages a comprehensive database on the specific incentives available in each state. It is important to research your state’s policies to maximize your savings and enlighten.energy is happy to help! Reach out to us!
An important category of solar incentives offered by many states and utility companies is performance-based incentives (PBIs). These programs reward home and business owners for the energy produced by their solar energy system. There are two main categories of PBIs.
In many states, utility companies are required to produce a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable sources like solar. To meet their clean energy requirements, many companies will purchase the energy produced by home solar systems to count it towards their quota.
SRECs are the mechanism through which ownership of the energy is transferred. One certificate is issued to a home or business owner for every 1,000 kilowatt-hours of energy produced by their system. Each SREC can typically be sold for hundreds of dollars!
In many states, your utility company can install a two-way meter on your property and connect your solar system to the grid. The meter can measure both the electricity used by your property and the excess electricity produced by your solar system that is fed into the grid.
Throughout the day, the energy produced by your solar system will exceed the energy needs of your house. To minimize waste, the energy produced by your system can be sent into the grid for others to use. To compensate owners for their energy, they receive credit for their energy bill.
A variety of solar incentive programs can make going solar extremely affordable. In some cases, your solar system can continue to make you money over the course of its operation. Navigating all of these policies can be a daunting task, but our team can help you take advantage of the solar incentives in your area.
The ITC, Solar Investment Tax Credit, is very important to the U.S. solar industry and has helped it grow significantly. It is THE federal policy mechanism in the solar sector. The growth of the solar industry has had a positive impact on the American economy and has created hundreds of thousands of jobs. Nevertheless, the ITC will be reduced in the near future – although the positive figures speak for themselves.
If you install solar on your roof – as an individual person or company – you get tax credits. This means that the amount that would actually be paid as income tax to the federal government is reduced. Currently, the ITC is a tax credit of 26 percent for a solar system (on residential under Section 25D and on commercial properties under Section 48). Due to this solar ITC, the U.S. solar industry has grown over 10,000 per cent since its introduction in 2006.
With the turn of the year, however, changes are on the agenda: The previous 26 percent will decrease by 4 percent to 22 percent in 2023. In 2024, the tax credit will be discontinued. Solar ITS has supported the United States in approaching green energy and renewable energies. Nevertheless, solar energy accounts for only 2.7 % of energy production in the United States so far. Reducing the tax advantages now seems to be a step in the wrong direction.
Contact us if you want to switch to solar energy!
We reported some time ago – using California as an example – that it definitely makes sense to switch to solar energy in order to be independent of the electricity network, but that in the event of a blackout of the electricity network, a separate storage facility is also relevant. Please read: Solar Electric Keeps The Lights On With California's Blackouts.
If you want to save electricity costs and energy, a photovoltaic system is worth an investment. It is important to know that you can store the solar power you do not consume immediately. So it is available for you if the sun itself does not provide enough energy. Solar power is stored in a battery which is used to charge an electric vehicle.
The solar cells of a photovoltaic system absorb the light energy of the sun’s rays and convert it into electrical energy, i.e. electricity. Your solar power is stored in a rechargeable battery. The battery converts electrical energy into chemical energy. If some of the electricity is needed, it converts the chemical energy back into electrical energy and passes it on to the device that needs it.
Lately, lithium-ion technology has been gaining ground when it comes to storing solar power. Although it is more expensive than lead-acid technology, it offers various advantages. For example, you can use the stored solar energy almost completely thanks to an efficiency of 93 to 98 percent. In addition, the lithium-ion battery can withstand a discharge depth of 70 to 100 percent. So if the storage tank is occasionally completely emptied, this does not have such a negative effect on its service life. How long a lithium-ion battery can be used – there are currently only estimates based on laboratory tests. With optimum energy management, the service life can therefore be up to 20 years.
Energy storage thus works thanks to batteries. Accordingly, we now offer you a brief insight into the history of lithium-ion batteries, also in view of the fact that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded this year for the development of lithium-ion batteries.
In order to have electricity available independently of network providers, many homeowners not only rely on photovoltaic systems but also on the storage of the solar energy generated in this way. Batteries are used to store electricity.
Lithium-ion batteries, which are used in battery storage systems for households with photovoltaic systems as well as in the field of electromobility, ensure that these products become increasingly profitable and competitive due to their technological and price development. In this way, they contribute to the energy revolution and help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants.
But the lithium-ion battery has not only been around since the 1990s. Instead, we have to go back another 20 years. At the Technical University in Munich, the lithium-ion battery was researched in the 1970s, creating the basis for the development of the lithium battery. This was followed by a change of location and a leap in time: John B. Goodenough and his team at the University of Oxford developed the first fully functional lithium cobalt dioxide battery in the 1980s.
That Goodenough would win a Nobel Prize with his work was probably not clear to him at the time. Today, his technology is regarded as pioneering and revolutionary for society. In 2019, together with Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
Yoshino and his colleagues at A&T Battery in Japan achieved industrial implementation in 1985. Global demand for batteries has grown steadily since then. Forecasts show that this will continue to be the case. In the next five years, electric mobility is expected to have made the transition from niche to the mass market. A study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI predicts a battery demand of 3 to 6 TWh in 2030.
Even though electric mobility today uses the majority of lithium-ion batteries, the battery will continue to be used in other areas. It is still used in numerous mobile devices or in portable power storage devices, like power banks. If you think of electricity storage as larger, for example with a view to photovoltaic systems, the lithium battery is also used there to compensate for fluctuations in electricity production.
The possibilities of use are already manifold, the potential of the battery is great. The application in the field of electromobility is one, besides the option to store solar power with batteries. The increase in performance and progress in terms of recycling are among the things that must be in the focus in the future because nowadays it is impossible to imagine today’s everyday life without this invention.
One of the benefits of solar systems is energy independence. Energy independence means to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, petroleum, and imported oil, and increase our necessity for clean energy, such as solar energy. This will help contribute to better stability economically, politically, and environmentally. Installing solar panels on your roof is one way to achieve energy independence on an individual level. On a national level, installing solar panels on everyone’s roofs is bringing America to absolute energy independence.
The renewable energy source brings independence to individual users. Solar panels are more valuable to the market when electricity rates continue to rise. Buyers save themselves from high rates by investing in a solar system. The distributed energy generation systems allow buyers to have energy independence since they are dependent on their own electricity source. More specifically, being solar energy independent means knowing exactly where your power is coming from. Having a battery backup system allows buyers to be protected from blackouts because PV panels provide energy stability. Also, the distributed energy generation systems allow buyers to have complete control of their electricity. Purchasers do not worry about any increasing utility rates. In other words, the independent energy market is less volatile than the dependent energy market. Finally, solar is a form of renewable energy, meaning that you can take advantage of the sun’s unlimited resource.
Relying on solar energy contributes to greater stability economically, politically, and environmentally. Economically, the country would be spending far less compared to nonrenewable energy and helping US-owned solar energy producers boost economic growth and employment. Employment rates would increase because of the increased number and productivity of U.S. factories. The prices of U.S. solar energy would also be far lower than prices in other countries. Politically, America would have a new political language with its energy position. By relying on domestic energy production, America does not have to import nonrenewable energy outside of the country where it is costly, and political tensions are high. Environmentally, solar energy systems allow buyers to participate in a green economy by reducing fossil fuels and carbon-based emissions that produce greenhouses, improving the quality of American lives.
More people are embracing energy independence by transitioning to solar. The more America continues to transition to renewables, the closer the country will be to be genuinely energy independent. Learn more on how to transition to solar energy with energy.enlighten!
If you are thinking of transitioning to solar panels, please feel free to contact us!
California was the first state in the USA to require solar systems on the roofs of new buildings. The new regulation, the California Solar Mandate, came into force in 2020.
Solar power will no longer be just a possible add-on, but a standard that will save the homeowner money in the long run and improve the environment. California’s environmental policies are always acting as pioneers for the whole country. Hopefully this time too. The state has set itself the goal to get 100 percent of its used energy from renewable energies in order to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The California solar mandate, which is part of an initiative of the California Energy Commission, states that the 50 percent mark should already be reached by 2030.
We consider this an important step towards a greener future. We, therefore, support our customers in California with advice and the implementation of solar projects when California goes green. If you are planning to build your own home in California or you are a housing developer, we can help you build a solar system on a California house or property.
We try to answer some important questions:
It is mandatory for all houses whose building permit has been applied for from January 1st, 2020.
No, it only applies to buildings that are less than three stories high. Higher buildings are not obliged to do so.
It must be able to compensate for 100 percent of electricity consumption. If other energy-efficient improvements have been made, such as energy storage or green building materials, the system can be correspondingly smaller.
“Not quite. New dwellings don’t need to be zero net energy (with 100% of the home’s energy use offset by PV production). Instead, they must be designed to achieve zero net electricity, with 100% of the unit’s electricity production offset by solar.”
The average price for a solar residential system is $2.85. That means a 10KW system is $28,500. On average, solar systems currently installed on homes in California are 6.8 kilowatts large.
Looking ahead to the next 30 years, solar panels on your roof will save you an average of $19,000. The value of your home will also increase. At the same time, the price of electricity will continue to rise, so you will save more and more. With your own solar system, you will no longer be dependent on the utility companies.
What if the electricity generated by solar systems has to be wasted because the grid is not able to integrate it properly? This is unfortunately the case.
An example: Every eighth house in Hawaii has solar panels on its roof. Together they produce more energy the state needs on sunny days. However, this power is currently being wasted. Dave Davies of npr spoke with Gretchen Bakke about her new book “The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans And Our Energy Future” and her criticism and concerns about the possibilities of the current power grid.
Bakke criticizes that the USA, with its current electricity network, has no chance of achieving the targets for renewable power. Therefore, it would be a great advantage if the power was stored in batteries. There are currently no solutions that do justice to the quantity. However, solutions are already being worked on. Bakke reports about the so-called Sisyphus train in Utah. The idea is that this very heavy training will be transported up a mountain during the day by electricity – especially solar power. After sunset, it rolls it down again to generate electricity.
Just like it happens when you “store” energy. Because one cannot really store energy, instead it is used to initiate a process which then produces electricity in reverse. In addition to the step that each individual can take by switching to renewable energies, such as their own solar system, the entire electricity network must also be worked on and solutions for storing the energy need to be integrated. The problem is nothing new, for years there have been reports about wasted solar and wind energy. It is time to finally upgrade the grids and implement alternative solutions.
First of all, let’s look at how efficiency is describe when we talk about HVAC efficiency. Usually, there are two definitions to describe HVAC efficiency:
Obviously, high-efficiency cooling and heating systems have an advantage over lower-efficiency models. Higher efficiency means your system can achieve and maintain the desired temperature in your house which also leads to lower operating costs of the running device. In general, new air conditioners with higher EERs or SEERs have higher price tags. However, the higher initial cost of an energy-efficient model will be recovered several times during its lifespan.
Solar cells or photovoltaic cells are the most important part of a photovoltaic panel. Different quantities of solar cells make up solar panels. Photovoltaic cells have many advantages. The types of benefits include sustainable, user-friendly, technological, and economic benefits.
One of the most lasting benefits is that solar cells provide clean and renewable energy because the sun is an inexhaustible energy source. Solar cells are long-lasting technologies. They can work with 80% efficiency for over 25 years without special maintenance.
Another benefit is that solar cells can be used in many smart applications to eliminate the need for changing batteries. Solar panel systems with backup can be used anywhere, including places where there is no electricity access.
Finally, solar cells have economic benefits. Installing solar panels will increase the value of your property significantly. In addition, you can reduce your electricity bills to almost zero because you are producing your own energy from the sun.
Storm windows are windows installed inside or outside the main windows. They are commonly used in applications with single glass windows. By using multi-glazed windows, the need of using storm windows is eliminated.
This type of window can be made of glass or different types of plastics.
Storm Windows can help reduce air movement, thus improving soundproofing and thermal insulation. Using them in old buildings can reduce the amount of used energy for heating up to 30%. They are cost-effective at the same time because adding additional storm windows is much cheaper than changing the single-glazed windows to double-glazed ones when the difference in costs of used energy is not so big.
Summing up, storm windows are commonly installed to improve thermal insulation and soundproofing. Aside from these factors, they are also used to protect expensive windows during bad weather conditions, such as hail or strong wind. Their construction often allows the user to mount them periodically when it’s required.
A ground-mount solar system or a roof system? What is the best option for you? Find out!
When you think of a solar system for your own house or business, you often have the image of solar panels on the roof in your mind. But you can build the solar system just as well on the ground. This can even have some advantages. Most installed solar systems are on the roofs of houses. Not everyone has the space on the property to have a solar system built on the ground. The roof is often the only option.
But if you have space, it definitely makes sense to think about it. For example, an installation on the ground is more flexible than one on the roof. So that the system can effectively produce energy.
It is not possible to say in general which of the two systems is better than the other. It all depends on your individual situation. We appreciate your interest. We are here to give you the best advice. Together we can find out what options you have: Solar panels to be mounted on your roof. Or a system in your garden.
