Listen Up: Filing for your Solar Investment Tax Credit
It’s getting to be that time of the year again — tax time, that is. As all new rooftop solar homeowners should know who purchased a system in 2014, they are eligible for a Federal Investment Tax Credit of 30 percent of the cost of their system. This tax credit is good for both solar PV and solar thermal (hot water) systems. The solar ITC applies to the owner of the system, which is the homeowner for purchased systems or the leasing/PPA company for systems that are owned by third parties.
The first of February marked the beginning of a campaign on college campuses across the country to raise student awareness about solar energy, dubbed “Solar Education Week.” Six events took place in Philadelphia, Dayton, Boulder, Fresno, Berkeley, and San Francisco. These campus events came just a few days before Global Divestment Day Feb. 13th, an
India said cheaper credit along with foreign investment will help the world’s third-largest polluter fund an ambitious renewable energy program that would build green power plants faster than China.
Scientists at VTT have developed a prototype of a tree that harvests solar energy from its surroundings — whether indoors or outdoors — stores it and turns it into electricity to power small devices such as mobile phones, humidifiers, thermometers and LED light bulbs. The technology can also be used to harvest kinetic energy from the environment.
For many mining companies, the rallying cry for investigating solar or wind energy options has been that the price of oil and other conventional fuels is too high — and will almost certainly rise over time. Now, though, with oil prices having taken a dramatic nosedive, this argument no longer packs quite the same punch that it once did.
Two solar energy news items are showing both the attraction and also the frustration that developers are feeling as they try to build new clean-energy power plants to help China wean itself from its dependence on fossil fuels. On the attraction side of the story, the industry has just won a major new backer in the form of insurance giant Ping An (H
Indian billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Power Ltd. plans to build 6 gigawatts of solar farms in a northwestern state, the third major project announced in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s renewable energy ambitions.