Pennsylvania may be cloudy but high electricity costs make solar panels a profitable investment in this state. To make your purchase easier and increase savings, take advantage of solar incentives in Pennsylvania.
The US government wants more people to go solar: it’s a modern and green way of getting energy. This is why the Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) program was developed. It allows American citizens to claim 30% of the cost of their installation as an income tax deduction. The cost here is not only solar panels, but also shipping, installation expenses and more. For example, if your system overall made you spend $10,000, the government returns you $3,000. To claim the ITC, complete all the necessary forms and submit them when filing your taxes.
In Pennsylvania, you can get additional financing for your solar project with different programs. They are designed primarily to help businesses switch to renewable energy.
One of the examples is the Sustainable Energy Fund. Solar loans are issued for businesses, nonprofits and municipalities. The size of a loan may vary from $5,000 to $1,000,000: the length of a loan and interest rates depend on the project and its scale. You can calculate the loan and interest on the SEF website.
Net Metering is the main way in which a solar system pays for itself in the US. The idea is always the same: you sell your excess solar energy into the commercial grid, gain credits and use them to cover your next electric bill.
The electricity that you send to the grid is credited to your next bill at the full retail kilowatt-hour rate, which includes generation, transmission, and distribution charges. All the remaining NEG are compensated at the utility's "price-to-compare" at the end of the year. The customer gets to keep the RECs that his system produces. Contact your utility for exact rates and net metering conditions.
For generating clean electricity any person can get Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs). Unlike with Net Metering, you don’t need to sell any electricity to get credits – the certificates are simply given to you. One SREC is granted for 1 Megawatt-hour of power. A 5kW system can generate over 7 Megawatt-hour over the year, so in theory it’s possible to get 5-7 SRECs in 12 months if you would send all your energy into the grid.
In Pennsylvania SRECs or alternative energy credits (AECs) can be traded using the PJM-EIS Generation Attributes Tracking System (GATS) platform. The price of a SREC in Pennsylvania floats around $20-$60. It may increase in the future so it makes sense to store credits for later. The lifetime of an AEC is 3 years. To participate, register your system at PJM EIS platform.
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Years of experience in translation and a love of nature help Julia find the right words to encourage going solar. She joined the team in 2023 and is happy to make her contribution to a greener future.
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