North Carolina Solar Rebates and Incentives
The North Carolina Speedway has held high speed auto racing since 1965, and doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. The NASCAR greats have all passed through there including Dale Earnhardt, a home town hero born in North Carolina, and Jimmy Johnson, the reigning NASCAR champion. But, what some of the gear heads out there may not know is that the North Carolina Speedway is partially powered by the accelerating renewable energy industry.
Thanks, in part, to federal tax credits for installing renewable energy systems, selling clean energy back to the grid, and an open auction system through the buying and selling of Solar Renewable Energy Certificates known as SRECs, the green energy industry is really shifting into high gear in North Carolina.
The main factor that has led to the growing renewable industry in the “Tar Heel State” is that it has adopted a Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS). This set of rules and regulations that dictate renewable standards statewide has paved the way for all investor-owned utilities in the state to supply 12.5 percent of retail electricity sales from eligible renewable energy resources by 2021. Moreover, municipal utilities and electric cooperatives must meet a target of 10 percent renewables by 2018.
To break it down by technology, North Carolina’s goal for solar-supplied energy to the state is 0.2 percent, and 0.2 percent energy recovery from swine waste by 2018, while the state has set forth to collect 900,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity derived from poultry waste by 2014. If all of this is actually achieved, the state of North Carolina will be producing a renewable energy total of at least 12.5 percent by 2021, but hopefully by that time we will be watching NASCAR events at the North Carolina Speedway under the glow of its very own 100 percent green-powered lighting system.
Solar Rebate and Incentive Programs
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NC GreenPower Production Incentive
Program Type Performance-based Incentive Technologies Photovoltaics, Landfill Gas, Wind, Biomass, Hydroelectric, Methane, Anaerobic Digestion Amount Varies by technology and customer demand for NC GreenPower Required Documentation Sign up card filled out with NC GreenPower representative, or for small solar and wind systems
online applications are available
Official Web Site http://www.ncgreenpower.org NC GreenPower is a statewide program designed to encourage the use of renewable technologies by offering payments for grid-tied electricity generated by solar, wind, small hydroelectric, and biomass systems.
Payments for most green energy are contingent upon an open bid consideration process. However, owners of small solar and wind systems that generate 10kW or less are encouraged to receive program incentives at any time by filling out an online application available on the NC GreenPower website. Another important side note is that owners who opt to enroll in a net-metering program are ineligible to receive incentives through the NC GreenPower program.
As far as compensation goes, the rates vary depending on the type of renewable technology, and are not guaranteed because NC GreenPower is a non-profit organization funded exclusively by volunteers.
Generators are required to enter into power-purchase agreements with their North Carolina electric utility and with NC GreenPower, and production incentives are based on the amount expected to make the installation of renewable-energy systems approach economic feasibility based on payment per kilowatt hour (kWh).
For example, owners of small solar-electric systems can expect to receive $0.15/kWh plus $0.04/kWh from their utility under the power-purchase agreement, for a total production payment of about $0.19/kWh. Owners of small wind-energy systems receive $0.09/kWh from the program, plus approximately $0.04/kWh from their utility, for a total production payment of about $0.13/kWh.
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Solar Renewable Energy Certificate Auctions
Program Type Performance-based Incentive Technologies Photovoltaics Amount Varied amount based on open auction process Required Documentation You are responsible for ensuring that your facility has been certified by the state, registered with the
SREC tracking registry and is transferable to SRECTrade upon close of the auction
Official Web Site http://www.srectrade.com/north_carolina_srec.php Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs) are used in an open auction bid process through SRECTrade where producers of grid-tied renewable solar energy can sell their green-electricity to buyers wherever SRECs are available. SRECTrade's monthly auction is designed and optimized to match buyers and sellers of SRECs in the most fair and efficient manner possible. In addition to the auction, SRECTrade has created EasyREC, a service dedicated to automating the bidding process and eliminating any work on the part of the seller.
With SRECTrade, buyers and sellers can log onto the website at any time and indicate the number and price of SRECs they would like to buy or sell. These indications are called “orders,” and orders are accumulated over the course of a month where at the end of the month as many orders as possible are auctioned off. Auctions close on the first Friday of each month. The best rule of thumb is to expect SRECs sold the first week of each month, and payments received the last week.
To maximize the number of orders executed in each auction, SRECTrade determines a market clearing price at which all eligible SRECs will be traded. To determine this price, SRECTrade ranks the “bids” to buy SRECs from highest price per certificate to the lowest and ranks the “offers” to sell SRECs from lowest price to the highest.
SRECTrade then starts a matching process, pairing the lowest offers with the highest bids. SRECTrade continues down the list of orders, matching higher bids with lower offers, until bid and offer values are equal; this point of equality is the auction's clearing price. It is at this clearing price that all the matched bids and offers are exchanged. Any bids to buy below the clearing price and any offers to sell above the clearing price will not be exchanged. This ensures that sellers never receive less than their offer price and buyers never pay more than their bid price.
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Renewable Energy Tax Credit
Program Type Personal Tax Credit Technologies
Passive Solar Space Heat, Solar Water Heat, Solar Space Heat, Solar Thermal Electric, Solar ThermalProcess Heat, Photovoltaics, pretty much any renewable energy generation method you can think of.
Amount 35 percent of the cost of eligible renewable energy property constructed Required Documentation The installation date(s), proof of your costs for the installation of renewable systems, and a list of the
persons or corporation that supplied labor
Official Web Site http://www.dornc.com/practitioner/individual/directives/renewableenergyguidelines.html North Carolina’s federal tax credit program currently offers residents a 35 percent tax credit for eligible renewable energy property constructed, purchased or leased by a taxpayer and placed into service during the taxable year. Since the passing of House Bill 1829 in 2010, this credit has been extended to wind, geothermal, small hydroelectric, biomass, biodiesel, and other renewable energy systems including the solar systems that the tax credits were originally designed for.
However, the tax credits are subject to various ceilings depending on the region and type of system. The credit limits for various technologies and sectors are as follows:
A maximum of $3,500 per dwelling unit for active solar space heating, combined solar active space and domestic solar water-heating systems, and passive solar space heating used for a non-business purpose.A maximum of $1,400 per installation for solar water-heating systems, including solar pool-heating systems used for a non-business purpose.
A maximum of $10,500 per installation for photovoltaic systems (also known as PV systems or solar-electric systems), wind-energy systems, combined heat and power systems, or certain other renewable-energy systems used for a non-business purpose.A maximum of $2.5 million per installation for all solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, combined heat and power, and biomass applications used for a business purpose, including PV, daylighting, solar water-heating and space-heating technologies.
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North Carolina Solar Power Financial Incentives
Financial Incentives
Corporate Tax Credit
Green Building Incentive
- Asheville - Building Permit Fee Waiver
- Local Option Green Building Incentive
- Mecklenburg County - Green Permit Rebate Program
Personal Tax Credit
Production Incentive
Property Tax Assessment
Property Tax Exemption
Sales Tax Exemption
State Grant Program
State Loan Program
State Rebate Program
Utility Loan Program
- Blue Ridge Mountain EMC - Residential Heat Pump Loan Program
- Brunswick EMC - Residential Energy Efficiency Loan Program
- Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative - Energy Conservation Loan Program
- Four-County EMC - Residential Energy Efficiency Loan Program
- Lumbee River EMC - Weatherization Loan Program
- Piedmont EMC - Conservation Loan Program
- Progress Energy Carolinas - Residential Energy Efficiency Loan Program
- Tideland EMC - Weatherization Loan
- Union Power Cooperative - Energy Efficient Heat Pump Loan Program
Utility Rate Discount
- Dominion North Carolina Power - Energy Saver Home Plus
- Duke Energy - Energy Star Homes Rate Discount Program
- Progress Energy Carolinas - Rate Discount for Energy Star Homes
- Randolph EMC - Energy Efficient Rate Discount Program
Utility Rebate Program
- Blue Ridge Mountain EMC - Residential Energy Efficiency Rebate Program
- City of New Bern Electric Department - Energy Management Rebate Program
- City of Statesville Electric Utility Department - Residential Energy Efficiency Rebate Program
- Four-County EMC - Residential Energy Efficiency Appliance Rebate Program
- Piedmont EMC - Residential Energy Efficient Heat Pump Rebate Program
- Piedmont Natural Gas - Energy Efficiency Program
- Progress Energy - Commercial Energy Efficiency Program
- Progress Energy Carolinas - Home Advantage Builder Rebate Program
- South River EMC - Solar Water Heating Rebate Program
Rules, Regulations & Policies
Building Energy Code
Energy Standards for Public Buildings
- Conservation of Energy and Water Use in State Buildings
- Asheville - Efficiency Standards for City Buildings
- Chapel Hill - Energy Conservation Requirements for Town Buildings
- Durham County - High Performance Building Policy
Interconnection
Net Metering
Renewables Portfolio Standard
Solar Access Law/Guideline
Solar/Wind Permitting Standards
- North Carolina Model Wind Ordinance
- Ashe County - Wind Energy System Ordinance
- Camden County - Wind Energy Systems Ordinance
- Currituck County - Wind Energy Systems Ordinance
- Hyde County - Wind Energy Facility Ordinance
- Kill Devil Hills - Wind Energy Systems Ordinance
- Tyrrell County - Wind Energy Facility Ordinance
- Watauga County - Wind Energy System Ordinance
Related Programs & Initiatives
Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center
The U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center (AFDC) provides a wide range of information and resources to enable the use of alternative fuels and other petroleum-reduction options, such as advanced vehicles, fuel blends, idle reduction and fuel economy. The AFDC site offers a database of state and federal laws and incentives related to alternative fuels and vehicles, air quality, fuel efficiency, and other transportation-related topics.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Green Power Network provides news and information on green power markets and activities, including opportunities to buy green power. This site provides state-by-state information on green power marketing and utility green power programs. In addition, the site lists marketers of renewable energy credits (RECs), also known as green tags or renewable energy certificates, which represent the environmental attributes of the power produced from renewable energy projects.
Weatherization Assistance Program
The U.S. Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) enables low-income families to reduce their energy bills by making their homes more energy-efficient. Through this program, weatherization service providers install energy-efficiency measures in the homes of qualifying homeowners free of charge. The WAP program web site offers a state-by-state map of opportunities, projects and activities.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Wind Powering America site provides state-by-state information on wind projects and activities, including wind working groups, validated wind maps, anemometer loan programs, small wind guides, state-specific news, wind for schools, workshops and web casts.
