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QUESTION: federal or state tax incentives for sustainable/renewable energy

Submitted by Anonymooose on Tue, 06/26/2007 - 1:57pm
question / pregunta: 

Do you know if there are any federal or state income tax incentives for homeowners who install/purchase use sustainable energy products for their households, like hybrid cars, solar energy panels, water saving devices and so on?

Answers

Answer posted by: jim miller

US Dept of Energy's "Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy" sitegives financing
links, including individual states

Also, you can use their advanced search, choosing "Must contain the phrase in the body": tax incentives and "must contain the words in the body":residential pennsylvania, to get 22 hits on PA, for example. You can also try searching in usa.gov, which has a very "Google like" search engine. The search: "solar energy tax credits" gets 45 hits; "solar energy" "tax credits" "new york" gets 100 hits.

In each state (use www.state.[2 letter state code].us), try browsing for their energy or environment departments. [state].gov also works, as in maryland.gov, ohio.gov, etc. For example, ohio.gov has an index link at left to "Government:, then to "State agencies and departments", then "Energy Efficiency", which has a "Grants and loans" link in its index column on left. In addition, the state pages often link to local governments - which may have local incentives.

Please let me know at jmiller2@umd.edu , or leave a new comment here at Radical Reference, if we need to look for more (or different) information on this.

Thanks,

Jim Miller,
University of Maryland
Engineering & Physical Sciences Library

Answer posted by: jbeek

It appears that two of us were working on your question at the same time! In addition to Jim's suggestions, let me add these.

For state incentives:
"The Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency is an ongoing project of the North Carolina Solar Center and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) funded by the U.S. Department of Energy." (from "about us" page) The site has a state by state listing - I can't give you a direct link due to the way the site is designed, but if you select "Search By" from the left-hand list of links, then choose "Incentive Type," you will get a drop-down list where you can select "Personal Tax Incentives," hit the search button, and get the list.

For federal incentives:
The Energy Star program jointly administered by the EPA and DOE has a list of Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency included in the The Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Hope this helps, and feel free to contact us if you need more.