Why It’s The Best Time To Go Solar

With a wave of renewable mandates going into place across the country, the solar market is priming for a boom.

California, soon to be Massachusetts, Washington DC’s Clean Jobs Act, New York’s mandates to source from renewables and many more renewable-based mandates going into place are making it the best time to go solar, while subsidies and declining solar development costs are giving “going solar” enough momentum to meet state and federal climate goals.

Needless to say, this year has been a very significant year for renewable energy in America. Many states are calling for drastic actions to reduce emissions created by what is being called “old and unclean” methods of energy production and increase renewable energy production.

Subsidies will continue, but not forever.

While going solar has many benefits, if you’re a business or a residential client, the cost of going solar is one of the primary concerns. Specifically, can the cost of your solar installment out-weigh the cost of existing energy bills. Thanks to subsidies that work to promote clean energy production, the answer is yes.

Solar Investment Tax Credit (SITC), also known as the Federal Solar Tax Credit, is a program that allows you to deduct 30 percent of the cost of installing a solar energy system from your federal taxes. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), since SITC’s launch in 2006, the solar industry has seen an annual growth of 50 percent.

Currently, SITC will be available until 2021 with no guarantee that the subsidies will continue after that and the possibility of the federal tax credit percentage dropping for 2020 and 2021 to below 30 percent.

Cost to Generate Solar Is Likely to Decline.

Adding to the benefits and incentives of going solar, perhaps another major sign of increasing momentum is the continued drop in the costs of solar development each year.

“An average-sized residential system has dropped from a pre-incentive price of $40,000 in 2010 to roughly $18,000 today, while recent utility-scale prices range from $28 per megawatt-hour to $45 per MWh, competitive with all other forms of generation.” – SEIA

According to the National Resource Defense Council, the same affordable MWh pricing is expected to continue over the next 30 years.

In Summary.

With the momentum of state and federal mandates, the federal tax credit that will be available through 2021 and the declining price of installing solar, now is the best time to go solar.