Go green, get paid. That's the premise of many state programs that will, in one way or another, pay you to install photovoltaic, or PV, electric generating systems on your house. We're talking significant cash here: Oregon, for example, will rebate about half the cost of a system, or up to $10,000. New York, Illinois, and California have programs, too. Here's an overview:
• New York gives a property tax exemption on the value added to your residence.
• Illinois pays an incentive of 33% of project cost or $10,000 total.
• California has two programs, one for new homes and one for existing homes. Get started at Go Solar California.
What kind of incentives does your state offer? Have you gone solar on your house, or encouraged your apartment manager or condo association to consider the idea?
image via www.sxc.hu
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Thank you for the timely info - I was just about to start researching this, and now I have a jumping off point.
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There are state-level incentives, but there are also local power company incentives as well. On Long Island, NY, LIPA is currently subsidizing the installation of new photovoltaic systems at a rate of $3.75 per watt, up to 10 kilowatts. For my new house I had a 4.5 kilowatt system installed (back when the incentive was $4 per watt), and that incentive definitely influenced my decision to go solar. As a net metering customer (I sell my excess power back to LIPA), all I have to pay for electricity is the standard connection charge of $0.17 per day. So far I have had $5 monthly electricity bills, despite the fact that EVERYTHING is run off of electricity (HVAC, hot water, cooking), and I have been loving it! Admittedly, I haven't really used my A/C much at all this summer, and I have tankless water heaters. In any case, I have been generating about 100 kwH of excess power every week during the summer months, which is being added to my "energy bank," which is basically like storing reserves of electricity. This way, when the winter heating season begins in earnest, I will have potentially enough energy credits saved up to offset the extra electricity I will be using for heating along with the shorter hours of daylight and reduced electricity generation.
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