Originally published October 15 2005
Oregon and New York offer tax incentives for solar energy systems
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
To promote the sale and purchase of solar energy systems, both Oregon and New York State have passed legislation to offer tax credits and sales tax exemptions for the purchase of these systems, but Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy News reports that, while Oregon gives tax credit for half of installation costs, New York State's tax credit covers the entire cost of installation.
Both Oregon and New York State recently put new legislation in place to offer tax credits and sales tax exemptions for solar energy systems.
The state already had a tax credit in place for alternative energy systems; that credit was based on the energy produced during the system's first year of operation and capped at $1,500.
The new solar electric system tax credit is much larger, at $3 per watt of installed output capacity, up to a maximum of $6,000.
The credit applies to systems certified by the State Department of Energy on or after January 1st, 2006, and will provide a strong incentive when matched with funds from the Energy Trust of Oregon.
The Energy Trust announced in July that its solar incentives had already yielded more than one megawatt of solar power in the state over the past three years.
See the text of Senate Bill 31 (the changes are marked with brackets and plus signs), its status (scroll down to SB 31), and the Energy Trust press release (PDF 30 KB).
New York Governor George Pataki signed a bill in August that exempts both the sale and installation of the equipment from state sales and compensating use taxes, and allows municipalities to waive their city sales taxes as well.
The governor also signed a separate bill that extends the state's personal income tax credit for solar energy systems to include systems used for water heating and space heating or cooling.
The credit applies to 25 percent of the cost of buying and installing solar energy equipment, and now has a cap of $5,000, up from $3,750.
For information about incentives available in other states, see the Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE) Web site.
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