Rebates

In 2006, Michigan enacted legislation allowing for the creation of Renewable Energy Renaissance Zones (RERZ). Renaissance zones offer significant tax benefits to facilities located within their boundaries. Facilities within a renaissance zone do not pay the Michigan Business Tax*, state education tax, personal and real property taxes, or local income taxes (where applicable). These taxes may be abated for up to 15 years, with the abatements being phased out in 25% increments over the last three years of the zone designation. For residents of renaissance zones designated before 2012, taxpayers are exempt from paying certain income taxes, if they

In October 2008, New Jersey enacted legislation exempting renewable energy systems used to meet on-site electricity, heating, cooling, or general energy needs from local property taxes. (There is not a state component to property taxes in New Jersey). Eligible renewable energy systems* include solar PV, wind, fuel cells, sustainable biomass, geothermal electric, landfill gas, hydroelectric, resource recovery, wave, and tidal systems that produce electricity. Systems that produce energy from solar thermal energy (e.g., solar hot water) or geothermal energy (e.g., geothermal heat pumps) are also eligible for the exemption. The exemption may be claimed for all qualified systems installed on

Note: The Inflation Reduction Act (H.R. 5376) made several changes to this program. It appropriated approximately $11.7 billion in total for the Loan Programs Office (LPO) to support issuing new loans. This, in turn, increased the loan authority in LPO’s existing loan programs by approximately $100 billion. The Inflation Reduction Act also adds a new loan program, the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) Program (section 1706), to help retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations or to improve the efficiency of infrastructure that is currently operating. 

Title 17 Program

Section 1703 of Title 17 of

In Puerto Rico, "bona fide farmers" are exempted from paying sales and use tax on equipment, devices, and objects that operate solely on solar, wind, hydro, or any other type of power, excluding the power from petroleum and its derivatives. A farmer must be certified by the Department of Agriculture to be considered a "bona fide farmer" or "bona fide agricultural business." This exemption is part of a larger tax package aimed at supporting Puerto Rican farmers.

The City Council of Fort Collins passed a resolution in September 2006 establishing green building goals for new city-owned buildings of 5,000 square feet or more. New buildings must be designed and constructed to achieve US Green Building Council LEED Gold certification, and existing buildings are to use the LEED standard as a guide for sustainable operation and maintenance, though no specific requirements are established.

To control the construction and design costs associated with new buildings meeting this standard, the goal of Gold can be reduced to Silver for projects where the payback period for earning Gold certification is ten

In May 2007, Montana enacted legislation (H.B. 3) that allows a property tax abatement for new renewable energy production facilities, new renewable energy manufacturing facilities, and renewable energy research and development equipment. Eligible facilities and equipment are assessed at 50% of their taxable value.

Qualifying renewable energy manufacturing facilities are those that (1) produce materials, components or systems to convert solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biogas or waste heat resources into useful energy, and (2) whose annual production of renewable energy equipment makes up at least half of the facility's total production. Fuel cells and components of fuel cells that generate

North Carolina's Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (CEPS), originally established as a Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS) by Senate Bill 3 in August 2007, requires all investor-owned utilities in the state to supply 12.5% of 2020 retail electricity sales (in North Carolina) from eligible energy resources by 2021. Municipal utilities and electric cooperatives must meet a target of 10% renewables by 2018 and are subject to slightly different rules. In February 2008, the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) issued an order adopting final rules to implement the CEPS. 

Eligible Technologies

Eligible energy resources include solar-electric

Cities and counties in North Carolina generally may not adopt ordinances prohibiting the installation of "a solar collector that gathers solar radiation as a substitute for traditional energy for water heating, active space heating and cooling, passive heating, or generating electricity for residential property."(§ 160D-914.a)* 

However, this does not prohibit development regulation regulating the location and screening of solar collectors as described previously, provided the regulation does not have the effect of preventing the reasonable use of a solar collector for a residential property. (§ 160D-914.b)

Nor does this prevent development regulation that would prohibit the location of solar collectors

New Hampshire’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS), established in May 2007, requires the state’s electricity providers -- with the exception of municipal utilities -- to acquire by 2025, renewable energy certificates (RECs) equivalent to 25.2% of retail electricity sold to end-user customers. The RPS includes four distinct standards for different types of energy resources; these are classified as Class I, Class II, Class III, and Class IV.

Class I - New Renewable Energy. This class addresses electricity or “useful thermal energy” generated by any of the following resources, provided the generator began operation after January 1, 2006, except as noted below

Vermont's Clean Energy Development Fund (CEDF) was established in 2005 to promote the development and deployment of cost-effective and environmentally sustainable electric power and thermal resources -- primarily renewable energy and combined heat and power (CHP) technologies.

Funding Sources

From its establishment to 2012, the CEDF was supported via annual payments from Entergy (which owns the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant). In return, under terms of two memoranda of understanding between Entergy and the Vermont Department of Public Service (DPS) that expired in March 2012, Entergy was permitted to store its own spent nuclear fuel at the Vermont Yankee site