The Georgia Clean Energy Property Tax Credit encourages homeowners and businesses to install a variety of equipment such as solar electricity systems, solar water heaters, wind turbines, geothermal heat pumps, and high-efficiency lighting. This incentive returns to the property owner up to 35% of the total system cost and are especially important for stimulating Georgia's market for renewable energy, since current State energy policies aim to keep the cost of nonrenewable electricity from coal and nuclear plants artificially low. (more on that in a future blog.)
In April, the Clean Energy Property Tax Credit program reached its limit for this year. That means that no more projects will receive these credits until January, 2011.
Relative to other states' clean energy programs, the Georgia Legislature capped this program at a ridiculously-low amount of $2.5M annually. Property owners must file for the credit after they install their systems, and the State then assigns the credits on a first-come, first served basis.
Theoretically if all of the credits were assigned to solar PV projects, that would amount to approximately 1.2MW of new electrical capacity. In some states, that much new solar PV is installed every week.
This, plus the new rate increases recently approved by the Georgia Public Service Commission, benefit the utility companies but not the ratepayers, be they homeowners or business owners. We should demand fairer and more competitive energy policies from our elected officials.
For more info and action, check out the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
