By Gary Best

For Massachusetts residents, the answer is a resounding

yes!

On account of the variety of incentives at both the state as well as the national level to purchase solar panels, there really has never been a better time to go green with solar energy. The vast majority of residential systems will

pay for themselves in less than 5 years

.

The retail price on a 5 kW solar panel set up is around $25,000. This system should emit somewhere around 6,000 kWh of electrical energy annually in Massachusetts and supply just about 60% of the standard residential household’s electrical energy needs.

There’s a Commonwealth Rebate which will subtract $2,000 off the price. Additionally, if you should live in a moderate home or earn a moderate salary, you will receive another $2,000 reduction. Or if you happen to have been unfortunate enough to have your residence damaged during last year’s tornadoes, you shall receive a further five thousand dollars off.

There also are both national and Massachusetts state tax credits. Currently the federal tax credit sits at a fantastic 30 percent and the state credit is for $1,000. Following the rebates coupled with the tax credits, you should be able to acquire a 5 kW solar panel system for about $16,000, less if you qualify for the moderate income or moderate home value adders.

A system of that size here in Massachusetts should provide an average of close to $80 worth of electrical power monthly yielding a yearly savings of $1,000.

But the best long-term revenues come from selling your system’s SRECs. One megawatt hour (1,000 kWh) is worth 1 SREC and a 5 kilowatt system should probably generate somewhere around 6,000 kWh annually. Because the state has compelled the electricity companies to produce a specific quantity of their electrical power via green sources, they will be compelled to pay you around four hundred dollars for every one of your 6 SRECs so they can say that you are generating electrical energy for them. Consequently that’s another $2,400 in tax-free income straight into your pocket annually.

So now you can have an understanding of how a $16,000 solar panel array can be paid off in slightly less than 5 short years considering that it nets $3,400 annually between electric bill savings as well as SREC revenue.

Solar panels are also among the best home improvement possibilities available to the Mass. resident. For a selling price of $16,000, it should

increase the value of your home by $20,000

. That happens to be a 125% ROI. Just about all home improvement projects don’t pay for themselves wholly. Solar panels not only raise the value of your house above what they cost you, they are able to make you money each year on top of everything else. They are even exempt from property taxes for the next 20 years.

And let us not forget the reason why these types of incentives exist to begin with – to save the Earth. A five kW solar panel array will slash your carbon footprint by almost 100 tons of carbon dioxide over twenty-five years, the equivalent of growing 800 trees. Each year, it’s going to stop the equivalent of three tons of coal or 20,000 cubic feet of natural gas from being burned to create electrical energy.

As you can see from all the incentives currently out there that right now unquestionably would be the ideal time for solar panels. The Commonwealth Rebate together with the federal and state tax credits lessen your initial expenditures. Plus the electric bill savings and also the SREC program supply significant returns and also boost your home’s resale value.

What’s more there’s simply no telling how much longer all of these incentives will be around. The Commonwealth Rebate has already been decreased once and the federal tax credit is endangered every year.

Lastly, as this business matures, a greater number of financing approaches are becoming offered to homeowners, making solar power affordable for anyone.

Without a doubt if you have always wanted to purchase solar panels, there really has never been a better time than now!

About the Author: Gary S. Best lives in Massachusetts and spent months researching the different incentives and financing options before deciding to purchase a 5 kW

solar panel

system in 2011. He has since created a website, http://www.MassSolarInfo.com, educating residents about

solar energy in Massachusetts

and providing them with a way to easily receive free estimates and save up to $500 off their own system.

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

isnare.com/?aid=1430454&ca=Home+Management