2011 is a The Best Year Ever for Your Business to Go Solar!

Federal Tax Rules – in place only in 2011 – allow you to recoup up to 65% of your system cost in your very first year.

On the 17th of December, 2010, the United States congress voted to extend the so called “Bush Tax Cuts”.  As part of this package, two programs that are very important to the solar industry were enacted f0r 2011.

The first program is the U.S. Department of the Treasury Renewable Energy Grant Program.  This program allows businesses to recover the 30% Federal Tax Credit that are due from their solar investment, by a different means.  Instead of waiting until their 2011 taxes are filed some time in 2012, you can waive your right to the tax credit, and instead receive a Treasury Grant within 60 days of your system passing state inspection.  These grants are equal in value to the tax credit a business would have received in 2012 (30% of the total system cost) but will be recovered much more quickly.

The second program is an acceleration of the MACRS (Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System) accounting rule that will allow businesses to recover 85% of the total cost of their solar PV system in 2011! Previously, this had been allowed over an already generous 5 years.

When you combine the two benefits, you can recover 65% of your system cost from the federal government in 2011.  This is without including your SREC income or electricity savings.  With these rules in place, if a business paid cash for their system, they would recover 100% of their outlay in 3.2 years!!!!!

Leasing models are even more popular. The customer will be cash flow positive as soon as they receive their Treasury Grant – around six months after we start the project, but after only a few lease payments.

See the link below for more information:

http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/recovery/Pages/1603.aspx

If a lease or an outright purchase of a solar PV system is not what you are looking for, let ARE do everything - even paying for the system! It’s called a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

See more at ARE PPA!