The annotated statute
The information and comments included in these pages are are not from a professional attorney or tax accountant and are not given as, nor should they be used as, tax or legal advice.
5/4/08: Started the resources page and added some clarifications and revisions in other pages. Also, read that Intersolar, Europe's largest solar expo, is coming to the US in July.
4/19/08: Happy Earth Day!
4/18/08: Some clarifications on language have been obtained and more are pending. Existing and new pages of this website will updated appropriately.
~2/1/08: Site development suffered a major set back due to a hard-drive crash in early January. Recovery has been slow, but progress is being made.
With regrets,
webmaster_[at]_ncretc.org
As of January 1, 2008 the State of North Carolina has enacted among the most generous and accessible renewable energy technology incentive programs in the USA. Through this incentive, the State of North Carolina will return 35% of the cost of qualifying renewable energy projects through tax credits. This credit extends to individual taxpayers, businesses, and now, to taxpayers who donate to NC registered 501c3 non-profits for renewable energy property installed by the non-profit within the state.
Business and non-profit per-installation-project-costs up to a maximum of $7.1 million can qualify for the tax credit for "non-residential" systems. Individual's residential systems maximum project costs of $4000.00, $10000.00 or $30000.00 qualify for the tax credit depending on the type of system installed.
Since as far back as 1977 North Carolina has offered tax credits for various renewable energy technologies. In 2006 the State Legislature increased the cap for credit of qualifying non-residential property to $2.5 million ($7.1 million total project cost). On August 20, 2007 the General Assembly's initiative to extend the generous tax credit to include donations to non-profits for renewable energy property was signed into law by Governor Mike Easley
Per North Carolina General Statute N.C. Gen. Stat. § 105-129.15 et seq. (2006) the following technologies are defined and recognized as renewable energy technologies: solar; wind; hydroelectric; biomass.
Solar energy equipment that uses solar radiation as a substitute for traditional energy for water heating, active space heating and cooling, passive heating, daylighting, generating electricity, distillation, desalination, detoxification, or the production of industrial or commercial process heat. The term also includes related devices necessary for collecting, storing, exchanging, conditioning, or converting solar energy to other useful forms of energy.
Wind equipment required to capture and convert wind energy into electricity or mechanical power, and related devices for converting, conditioning, and storing the electricity produced.
Hydroelectric generators located at existing dams or in free-flowing waterways, and related devices for water supply and control, and converting, conditioning, and storing the electricity generated.
Biomass equipment that uses renewable biomass resources for biofuel production of ethanol, methanol, and biodiesel; anaerobic biogas production of methane utilizing agricultural and animal waste or garbage; or commercial thermal or electrical generation. The term also includes related devices for converting, conditioning, and storing the liquid fuels, gas, and electricity produced with biomass equipment.
Non-profits and businesses qualify for all recognized renewable energy property technologies: solar; wind; hydro; and biomass. Implemention of any of the technologies require that certain installation design requirements or performance metrics are achieved by the installation.
For individuals (residential), the focus of the tax credit incentives are on the following types of "practical" implementation for homes: passive solar for daylighting; passive solar for space heating; solar thermal for domestic hot water; solar thermal for domestic hot water with space heating; and photovoltaic systems (i.e. PV, solar electricity).
As with non-profit and business projects, residential implemention of any of the technologies will require that certain installation design requirements or performance metrics are achieved. Additionally, the state distinquishes between various types of solar technology and caps the maximum credit for several types of residential installation. Fortunately, in the case of the active solar technologies, installers can provide homeowners with relatively standardized designs, featuring predictable performance that will "best match" needs while qualifying for the tax credits. Passive solar, wind, hydro and biomass installations will be locale and resource specific, thus likely to require careful design to insure that the installation meets requirements to qualify for the tax credit.
This website explores the opportunities and economics of this generous incentive from the perpective of non-profits and individuals. It assumes that non-profits and individuals with access to productive wind, hydro and biomass resources will be in the minority to those with productive solar resource. For this reason, and because the available solar resource is distributed widely throughout the state, this website will focus on exploring the incentive with respect to solar technologies. Non-profits and individuals interested in developing wind, hydro and biomass resources are referred to the resources page for more information.
Businesses operate under varying models for operation, capitalization and investment. The degree to which, and manner in which, energy acquisition, utilization and costs are assessed can vary greatly from business to business. For this reason, exploration of applying this tax incentive to business is left as an exercise to those inclined. Much of the general exploration of this tax incentive from the non-profit point-of-view may be instructive for business. As with the non-profit case, businesses interested in developing wind, hydro and biomass resources are referred to the resources page for more information.
Notably, for businesses where heat (including hot water and\or process heat) is a significant percentage of energy costs, the economic case for implementing solar thermal technologies throughout the geographic region of North Carolina is often compelling based on common capital investment and return-on-investment models, particularly with the current tax credit incentive. This is regardless of any "green marketability" that a business could leverage within their business space for including renewable energy in their operation. Businesses that use significant hot water should evaluate solar thermal technologies.