In 2008, Governor Patrick's administration passed a new Solar Electric Photo-voltaic Initiative for the Commonwealth, which includes Solar rebates for residential and commercial Solar PV installations, as well as rebates for other renewable-energy technologies. This new program will allocate $68 million over next four years (2008 - 2011). Here is a brief summary of rebates for Residential and Non-Residential (Small and Large Commercial, Non-Profit and Government) solar PV systems.

Moderate Home Value varies by county and ranges from $300,000 to $400,000. If your home value is equal to, or less-than your county's Moderate Home Value (determined by municipality), you are eligible for this rebate.

County	Moderate Home Value
Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire	$300,000
Bristol, Suffolk, and Worcester	$350,000
Barnstable, Duke, Essex, Middlesex, Nantucket, Norfolk, and Plymouth	$400,000

Massachusetts made system components: If any MAJOR component of your solar system was produced in MA, you are eligible for this rebate.

Official wording to qualify for this rebate adder:

To qualify for this adder, the Applicant must provide evidence that either the PV modules or the inverter(s), or another significant component are manufactured by a company with a significant Massachusetts presence as determined at the sole discretion of MTC and DOER. Current companies and products on this list are:

Evergreen Solar: modules
RWE Schott: modules
Satcon: inverters
Solectria Renewables: inverters

Here is how it works:

For our example, we will use imaginary Family - the Simpsons - living in Bristol County of Massachusetts. Their home value is $279,000 as determined by their City's Tax Collector Office. The Total Household Income is $90,000/year (which is above Mass. median household income of $76,296). The system consists of SolarWise PV and an Inverter manufactured in Mass.
They plan to install a 3 kW Solar PV system that costs $8 per watt. Total Cost of this system is $24,000 (3000 watts * $8)

They qualify for:

$2.00/watt - Base Rebate
$0.25/watt - Mass. made components adder
$1.25/watt - Moderate Home Value adder
$1.00/watt - Moderate Household Income adder
$4.50/watt Total Rebate ($13,500)

Their cost/watt is $3.50, and the total system cost is $10,500. They also qualify for a $2000 Federal Tax Credit, which reduces final cost to $8,500.

Now, their new system will generate an average of 4000 kWh per year. At average cost of $0.19/kWh and assuming they will sell their REC (Renewable Energy Credits) for $0.06/kWh, this solar system will save the Simpsons $1000/year (~$83/month) in electricity costs, which they would have to spend anyway. At first, it seems like the pay-off period (or the ROI) is about 9 years. But if they finance that $8,500 with a 5-year Home Equity loan, with a 5% APR, their monthly payment would be $160.41. If we subtract the $83 reduction in electric bill from $160.41 we get $77.41 monthly loan payment for five years. After that, the new solar system will be paid off and will generate FREE electricity. Any reduction in total system output (which is common with ALL solar modules, and for IB SolarWise PV it is about 1/2% per year or 10% over 20 year warranty period) is more than offset by the inflationary increases in electricity and energy sources costs.

Massachusetts Commercial and other Non-Residential Solar Rebates:

While while total non-residential solar PV rebates in Massachusetts are less than those for residential solar, they still cover a major part of the total cost, and considering a much more attractive federal tax credits, the ROI with any commercial solar PV system is higher than that of a residential. Here we will not get onto complicated tax-related calculations, but bear in mind the 30% federal tax credit with no limitation, and the 5-year accelerated depreciation. With that you get the reduced electric bill and of course the state rebates. Bellow is an overview of what you can qualify for.
Note: At this point, Federal tax credits for Solar PV on other renewable-energy technologies is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2008. We assume that once the presidential election is over, the Renewable-Energy Bill will be updated and renewed for another 8 years as was proposed in the 2008 Energy Bill, but never made through the Senate. President Bush also said that he'd veto this bill if it passed the Senate vote. (PS, the bill passed in the House of Representatives, and was 1 vote short of passing in the Senate)

Non-Residential Rebates for Incremental Capacity ($/Watt DC)

Incremental Capacity:	1 - 25 kW	> 25 to 100 kW	> 100 to 200 kW	> 200 to 500 kW
Base Incentive	$3.25/W	$2.50/W	$2.00/W	$1.50/W
PLUS: Additional to Base
Mass. made components	$0.25/W	$0.25/W	$0.25/W	$0.25/W
Public building adder	$0.50/W	$0.50/W	$0.25/W	$0.25/W

With these incentives in place and their availability through 2011, it actually makes sense for any business to have a solar PV system installed on their roof, and even more so for public entities, such schools, city/town halls, etc. For and average commercial installation state rebate will range from $2.75 to $3.50 per Watt DC, and considering that the initial cost for larger, commercial solar PV installations is less than that of a residential system, it is a bargain!

With IB SolarWise PV system, the cost/Watt scales down as you increase the system size. This happens because all you do is add more solar panels, and some labor to actually weld those panels to the main IB roof, while most of the labor is on the electrical side of the installation: Connecting all panels to the Inverter, installing power shut-offs, generation meter, and connecting the system to the building's electrical system and the main eclectic meter. Also bear in mind that the Inverter is already there, so when you add more panels to the system, you do not need to add inverters, which reduces total cost/Watt even more (of course you need adequate size inverter).

This concludes our overview of Mass. Solar rebates. There are some limitations in place, and certain guidelines to apply for and receive MA Solar PV Rebates, and a lot of other related information. However, we cannon include all of it into one article, as it would be too cluttered.

For more information, directions, and step-by-step guides, visit the Commonwealth Solar Program which cover all aspects related to this topic in great detail, and we based this article on the information from there.

You can also read the Mass. Solar Program Handbook which is a detailed summary of Mass. solar rebates for residential and non-residential installs.

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Massachusetts State Tax Rebates, Incentives and Grants for Solar PV

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