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Update on Recent State and Utility Solar Water Heating Incentives

By Tor Valenza
July 7, 2011 | 9 Comments

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Let’s face it. Incentives help make the case for solar technologies, whether it’s solar water heating systems or solar electric.

The Free Hot Water blog previously wrote about the current national solar thermal incentives, but here they are again, briefly:

Both residential and commercial solar thermal systems are eligible for the 30% Federal Tax Credit, though they’re calculated differently.
Commercial (tax paying) businesses are also eligible for the Federal 1603 Tax Grant program, which converts the tax credit into cash. (Remember that this program is set to expire at the end of the year.)
Businesses also receive Federal Modified Accelerated Cost-Recovery System (MACRS) tax deductions, explained here.

Of course, state incentives change more often than Federal incentives, so here’s an update on the latest solar water heating rebates from the last 6 months or so.

Florida

Tampa Electric Utility is offering commercial and residential customers a solar water heating rebate of $1,000. Details here.

Iowa

$500 rebate.
Available through the Linn County Rural Electric Cooperative Association (Linn County RECA).
Available to residential and commercial systems.
More info here.

Maryland

We recently wrote a blog post about this. Here are the highlights:

Residential rebate was reduced from $1500 to $500, but…
Residential solar water heating systems are now eligible for SREC payments.
SRECs (Solar Renewable Energy Credits) payments are market based and vary by supply and demand.
At current rates, home owners may be eligible to receive up to $1250 (5 SRECs per year, maximum)

New Jersey

New Jersey already has a very robust SREC program that has made it one of the leading states for solar PV. Now, solar water heating is getting some attention.

As of February 2011, residential solar water heaters are now eligible for a $1200 rebate.
Commercial solar thermal systems are now eligible for 5-year loans of $250,000 to $1 million. Even more interesting, the program has a performance Grant Conversion of up to 50% of loan amount at the end of the loan term. Rates are from 2% to 10%. More info here.

New York

Residential and multi-residential solar water heating systems are now exempt from sales tax.
The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) is now offering $1,500 or 50% of installed cost of residential solar water heating systems. However, customers must have electric water tanks. Details here.
There’s a new state (NYSERDA) incentive for commercial, government, or residential solar thermal systems that are displacing electric water heaters. You can now receive: $1.50 per kWh displaced annually. The maximum incentive is $4,000 for residential systems and $25,000 for non-residential. More info here.

North Carolina

Chatham County is offering $100 rebate on permitting fees for residential solar water heating systems.

South Carolina

Residential solar water heating systems under SCE&G utility are now eligible for $250 rebate. More info here.

That’s the solar thermal incentive news for the last six months. If we missed any good or bad state incentive news, please let us know!

Solar Energy

The information and views expressed in this blog post are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of RenewableEnergyWorld.com or the companies that advertise on this Web site and other publications. This blog was posted directly by the author and was not reviewed for accuracy, spelling or grammar.

9 Reader Comments

Comment
1 of 9

CleanerUSA1

July 7, 2011

Oregon's Solar Hot Water Incentives through Energy Trust:

This program offers a rebate of $1,500 for residential solar water systems, $1,000 for pool heating systems and 35% off of the total system cost for commercial installations.

Comment
2 of 9

thomas-mayrand-14505

July 8, 2011

What about the incentive of FREE water heating for domestic hot water and heating?

Comment
3 of 9

electric38

July 9, 2011

Thomas, you are correct. Why the banksters and corporate entities aren't jumping all over this is weird. Maybe they haven't figured the derivatives and long term loan multipliers they can base their earnings projections on....
Free solar water heating could become as common as the "free solar panel" ads we are seeing. Lets give them a minute... the powers that be still have our economy by the throat don't they...?

Comment
4 of 9

scott-davies-37357

July 12, 2011

State solar incentives are different from those provided by the utilities. This blog is presenting private utility incentives as state incentives. There are specific levels of incentives which most times can be used in combination giving the consumer the best discount towards installing SHW systems. These levels are: Federal,State and local utility. Less often help is offered by local laws or promotions/sales offered by the system manufacturers themselves. At this time, in general, the most significant savings are offered to solar P.V. systems over solar hot water (SHW) systems because the measurement of electricity is already established using electric meters, a common technology, while the measurement of hot water produced needs meters that measure the volume and BTU's of flowing water rather than flowing electrons. These exist but are unfamiliar to most installers and utilities and usually have infrastructure limitations the utility would have to invest into to resolve. This being said, solar hot water systems, because of the above incentives and far lower initial capital investment are without question the best bang for one's solar bucks at this time nationwide.

Comment
5 of 9

reBen

July 12, 2011

Use the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency:

http://www.dsireusa.org/

Comment
6 of 9

scott-davies-37357

July 12, 2011

Thank you Ben for providing the dsireusa.org/ website - always an excellent source. Notice that the three catagories of incentives I mentioned in my earlier comment are presented on the site as just that, with utility not presented as state and state not presented as federal. I too have been a solar installer, here in Gainesville, Florida and with my own company. I also participated in the GRU (Gainesville Regonal Utilities) workshops and spoke to the city commission as a citizen, solar advocate and local solar installation company owner prior to and reinforcing the passage of Gainsville's Feed-In-Tariff (FIT), the first in the U.S. for P.V. based on the German model. I have discussed solar thermal and wind as to a FIT with GRU but for reasons mentioned in my last comment - no go, though the wind generators would transition easily to net-metering. At this time I am repairing/refurbishing old SHW modules(flat plate units)and trying to establish a local/state system for doing so for poor, low-income/single parent homes to help their bottom line monetarily and of course, the environment.

Comment
7 of 9

Fred_FreeHotWater

July 13, 2011

Scott. I stand corrected and am sorry for any confusion. I believe I did provide the links for more information, which would have clarified. Some of the above are indeed utility-only incentives.

The point here was to compile a list of the most recent SWH incentives, be they state or utility.

ReBen, absolutely, DSIRE is the go-to source for this type of info, but if you haven't checked it out recently, I made a list of what I could find on the solar water heating side.

Thanks for your comments and clarifications.

Comment
8 of 9

scott-davies-37357

July 13, 2011

Fred,
Perhaps I focused on semantics beyond obvous intent. I respect your response, you are an honorable person. On the side of solidarity for the cause of SHW, I beleive that solar hot water is a no brainer for Florida and indeed the nation as a whole. We do have historical precedent for such here in Florida. Solar hot water was common as early as the late 1800's in Miami. When electricity was introduced, electric water heaters were given away for free to enable the new technology by the new electric energy providers. This action created a larger cash flow to the new utilities down the road. This technique is still in use today for the same reason, as in say, cell phones. You get a free cell phone if you sign a long-term contract which insures an ongoing cash flow well beyond the cost of the cell phone itself. Now we are in a situation where the depletion of a finite resource (electric generation through coal,natural gas or oil)has reached it's peak of profitability due to the realization that 1)it costs more and more to extract those resources, 2)the bulk of oil extraction is now overseas and at the whim (greed)of foreign powers many of whom have questionable friendliness if at all towards the U.S. and finally, 3)the complacency and fear of U.S. energy providers and governing powers to change a system which has been highly profitable and ingrained into three or four generations of assumption and thought (culturally enabled). Now we see more and more RE offerings (thank goodness) due to the awakening perceptions of the reality of finite energy resources and the public pressure of informed and concerned citizens. I think most of us could agree that more of the latter is needed. SHW systems are by far the easiest and cheapist active technologies to achieve a goal of energy independence and environmental and social sutainability. We need to stand together with intellegent people like Fred and make such happen sooner rather than later.

Comment
9 of 9

CleanerUSA1

July 13, 2011

We concur with Scott here that SHW is by far the easiest & cheapest technology in the Renewable Energy world. Besides Energy Efficiency, SHW is probably one of the quickest Rational Return of Investment( RROI). The maintenance is repair costs are fairly low, add in the incentives and the system is affordable. Dirty energy will continue to rise and SHW can provide the security and just like Scott says, is more environmentally & socially sustainable. It would be nice to see more school teaching SHW Systems as a curriculum so our children may become environmentally responsible in the future. Like Scott, we see Solar Fred (Tor Valenza) as an ambassador in the Solar field and we are lucky to know him.

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