NORWICH – New legislation signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo that makes solar energy more affordable for businesses and residents statewide has rejuvenated the Chenango Community Action for Renewable Energy (C-CARE), pushing the organization to advocate for alternative energy in the county.
The series of bills signed by the Governor in August work in conjunction with the NY-Sun initiative, an act the governor signed in April as part of an effort to double the amount of sited solar pannels installed annually and quadruple that amount by 2013. New solar power incentives include statewide tax credits for the lease and power purchase agreements of solar equipment, and tax exemptions for solar equipment used for commercial purposes.
According to C-CARE Chair Kenneth Fogarty, the new statewide incentives have led to increased response from residents across the county. Solar efforts are a step up for the renewable energy coalition, he added, and uphold its mission to promote renewable solar energy to residents, businesses and municipalities within the county.
“It’s a nice step forward,” Fogarty said. “All of these things take us further into the direction of where we would like to see things going ... We’re moving in a direction where we call for local sustainability. As grids go down, you need local production of electricity and we see solar power as a source of energy that is not getting scarcer and scarcer.”
“These are all incentives that make funding much easier for residents,” he went on to say. Fogarty himself took advantage of available state and federal tax credits to install solar pannels at his home last month.
New state legislation allows for statewide tax credits for homeowners who obtain solar equipment through a lease or power purchase agreement, so long as the agreement extends at least ten years. These tax credits would be available for 14 years, with a maximum amount of $5,000 for all years. According to a press release from the governor’s office, “This new business model has the potential to significantly increase the pace of solar energy installations in the state, as it often reduces or eliminates up front costs to the customer.”
“That all lowers the cost significantly and makes funding easier for residents,” Fogarty said. He reported that the price of solar pannels and installation fall from an average $49,000 per residence or business to less than $15,000 with the help of government subsidies and leasing.
On the commercial end, new legislation also exempts sales tax from the sale and installation of commercial solar energy systems and allows municipalities and cities to exclude these costs from local sales tax. Although this won’t go into effect until 2013, some local municipalities are on board with the idea of solar energy.
“This is something we may have potential for,” explained Guilford Supervisor George Seneck. With a newly-constructed highway garage that’s designed for solar heat, there’s already prospective benefits of using solar energy in the Town of Guilford and the township has been open to the option for months. The catch, added Seneck, is that “grant money to municipalities is not as favorable as it is to homeowners.”
“The other interest we have our eye on is the likelihood of solar farms in the area,” Fogarty said. He explained that farms in the county could lease out space for solar pannels, which businesses or municipalities could invest in for energy.
Presently, C-CARE is also working to develop the Solarize Chenango project, modeled after a similar undertaking in Madison County. C-CARE is already involved with the Town of Guilford Planning Board in updating the town’s comprehensive plan but members hope to reach out to municipalities across the county in the coming months. The Solarize Chenango concept would partner C-CARE with the Chenango County Planning Board as well as local banks to establish and promote leasing programs so more area residents could invest in solar power opportunities.
Said Fogarty, “If we model something like that, then we would have a sustainable increase (of solar pannel installations) ... If we could get in interested collection here, we can look at the next step.”