What a credit is, and what it is not

This is a tax credit, not a rebate. It reduces what you owe in federal income tax for the year the system is placed in service. It is not a cheque, and it is worth nothing to you in that year if you owe nothing.

Eligible cost generally includes modules, inverters, mounting, wiring, labour, permitting fees and, where paired with generation, battery storage above a minimum capacity. Roof replacement is usually not eligible even when it is done at the same time, a distinction that catches people out.

Where the credit exceeds your liability for the year, the unused portion can generally be carried forward. How far and under what conditions is exactly the sort of question your tax professional exists to answer.

Business owned systems can generally be depreciated over a five year MACRS schedule, and bonus depreciation provisions have at various times allowed a large share to be taken in year one.

The depreciable basis is usually reduced by half of any investment credit claimed, which is a detail that materially changes the model and is frequently missed in vendor spreadsheets.

Depreciation interacts with your entity structure, your tax position and any passive activity limits. We provide the schedule as an input to your accountant, not as advice.

North Carolina provides a partial exclusion from property tax for solar energy electric systems. In practice this means the added assessed value of the equipment is substantially, though not entirely, excluded.

The exclusion typically has to be claimed, and there is an application window with the county assessor. Missing it usually means waiting for the next cycle.

Treatment can differ between residential and business property, so confirm with your county tax office before assuming a figure.

Where solar equipment is permanently installed it is normally treated as a real property capital improvement rather than a retail sale, which changes how sales tax applies to your contract.

The practical effect is visible on the proposal rather than as a separate incentive. We show it as a line so that you can compare quotes on the same basis.

Utility incentive programmes in North Carolina have been through several structures, including capacity based rebates that were allocated by application window and exhausted quickly.

We track current availability rather than quoting from an out of date table. If a programme is open when you sign, the application goes in as part of our paperwork. If it is not, we say so rather than modelling a rebate that does not exist.

The rider you end up on matters more than any one time rebate. See the net metering explainer for what export credit actually means on your bill.

One renewable energy certificate represents the environmental attribute of one megawatt hour generated. It can in some markets be sold separately from the electricity itself.

The North Carolina market has been thin compared with states that have a strong compliance obligation, so we do not build certificate revenue into residential models. For larger commercial systems it is worth a separate conversation.

If you sell the certificates, you no longer hold the claim to the environmental attribute. That matters if your organisation reports on emissions.