by Sat-Jiwan Khalsa •
What's certain in life? Death and Taxes... and the costs of dirty energy going up! While gas prices have gone down due to the (temporary) economic downturn, they'll soon be up again as we keep tapping limited and dwindling resources with a staggering global demand. Conservation and efficiency are certainly the cheapest and fastest ways to extend that dwindling supply, but we'll need to seriously integrate lots of renewable energy supplies as well.
Efficiency and renewable energy incentives have been around for a few years, in their most recent form, and in general they are getting better with age. While, some components of the bailout and stimulus bills are certainly dubious, the energy incentives have multi-faceted benefits for the green jobs economy: reducing global warming emissions, creating jobs (especially ones good for retraining auto, steel and coal union workers), saving money for homeowners, reducing imported fuels and promoting energy independence!
Fortunately, just as you're finishing up your taxes for this year, you can look forward to a number of new (and old) financial incentives to help you pay upfront costs for reducing energy use and increasing renewable energy production, which can save you even more money in the long run. Here's a quick summary of some of the best current local and federal incentives.
Federal Tax Incentives: New federal tax credits went into effect February 2009 as part of the stimulus bill. EnergyStar energy efficient products installed in 2009 and 2010 qualify for a tax credit of 30% up to $1500. (the old incentive was 10% up to $500). Covered products include insulation, water heaters, furnaces, biomass stoves (such as corn stoves), windows, doors, roofs. Renewable energy systems (wind, solar, geothermal) qualify for 30% tax credit with no upper limit, and can be installed up to 2016 (the old incentive had a $2000 cap). More details at: www.EnergyStar.gov
Local Incentives: (can be combined with the federal incentives.) More information at www.dsireusa.org.
MD - In Maryland, last year's solar electric (and geothermal) grant program provided $2,500 per kilowatt of installed capacity, saving about 25 percent of the costs. The newest version of this program opening July '09 will likely be less than that (10-12.5 percent?), but hopefully still better than the program they had 2 years ago when I got my panels. Solar hot water incentives are similar. More at www.energy.maryland.gov
DC - (1.) In DC they recently re-opened their very generous solar grant program (grants for PV available now, solar thermal (hot water) and geothermal (heating and cooling) later this year). For smaller systems (up to 3KW) the grant covers about 33 percent of costs. (2.) DC is also still offering free energy audits to residents (Two friends and a client of mine got it and it's pretty good for a free audit). More at: www.green.dc.gov or call 202-673-6700.
Montgomery County - (1.) Clean Energy Rewards program rebates you .5 cents per kilowatt hour of clean electricity you buy for your home. (2.) You can receive up to $250 property tax reduction by installing energy efficiency measures. (3.) There's a new, proposed bill with expedited implementation: HELP - Home Energy Loan Program. You can get a zero- or low-interest, 15-year loan for "cost effective" energy efficiency improvements. If you've done the improvements or your house is already efficient, you can apply the loan to renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal) systems. The loan is assessed as a lien on the house so it stays with the home during a sale, and is paid back via the county tax bill. (There's a national counterpart to this bill introduced by Rep. Chris Van Hollen.) More info at: www.MontgomeryCountyMD.gov (look for renewable energy tax credit or clean energy rewards)
Hypothetical Case Studies - How this might look on your house: (These just lay out the upfront costs and savings for a house in Montgomery County. They don't include the additional savings on energy and utility bills which will typically pay for the balance of the cost in close to 5 years for weatherization and close to 10 years for solar.)
Weatherization - If you had a whole-house air sealing and insulation job at a cost of $5,000 and combined the federal tax credit (30 percent) and a county property tax credit ($250), the final cost would be $3,250 (35 percent savings equal to $1,750).
PV (solar electric) - If that same house installed a 1.5kw solar system (retail cost ~$15,000) and combined the federal tax credit (30 percent) and a MD solar grant (~12.5 percent (proposed)), the final cost would be $8,625 (42.5 percent savings, equal to $6,375).
...and under the proposed Home Energy Loan Progam, both of those remaining costs for weatherization and solar could be financed as a zero- or low-interest, 15-year loan - paid for by reduced utility bills, resulting in no out of pocket expenses.
So, what seems to also be certain in life is tax credits for efficiency and renewables. Tell the county council to pass the HELP (Home Energy Loan Program), do your conservation and efficiency upgrades now, and look to go solar in the near future!
Sat Jiwan Iklé-Khalsa is a recent green home renovator and a green building/renovation consultant. Find past articles, local green building stores, info, resources, including annotated green house renovation photos and services at www.Truthful-Living.com or call 301.891.8891
For latest green articles and discussion visit the Green Voice blog: www.takoma.com/green
Green Resources Blog
Keeping with the Green Home mantras theme from last month we've got three prioritized resources: first conservation and efficiency, then cheap renewables, and last more costly (but discounted) solar.
Seal-up party
Get together with friends to share skills, tools and materials for doing basic seal up work: caulking, weather stripping, spray foam and foam board. Materials (including pizza and beer) could cost less than $100. You'll have fun, and probably save enough money during the first year to cover your costs (unless of course you pay for materials with a tax credit). Have several of these in a row to pass along and use up extra materials, and get yourselves ready for the next step: adding more insulation.
Wanna get "cheaper than coal" wind power for the house?
My last resource box said you could get 100% wind power for $500/year. That was based on the rates I signed up for two years ago. Right now you can save money with wind power! By signing up now with Clean Currents you can lock in 100% wind power for your home at just $0.118/KWh (including generation and transmission costs) for two years. That's 11% below PEPCO's new summer rate ($0.13159) and it's only 0.3% higher than current winter rates ($0.11763), which could go up by next fall. Visit: www.CleanCurrents.com or call 301-754-0430. (If you're a Montgomery County resident, you can get an additional ½ cent rebate for every KWh of clean energy purchased through the Clean Energy Rewards program.)
Local Solar Co-ops
If you're looking to save even more money on solar (beyond the grants and tax credits), consider contacting some of these local solar cooperative organizations. Common Cents Solar, Silver Spring Solar Collective, and Mt Pleasant Solar Coop. Some benefits of the coops include assistance and discounts with site evaluations, financial incentives, bulk purchasing of panels and materials, collective installation contract negotiation, and buying in to larger school/church installations which are more cost-effective and provide options for people with too much shade. More info: www.CommonCentsSolar.org, www.SolarCollective.ning.com, and www.MtPleasantSolarCoop.org
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