There are a lot of rebates and tax credits out there for solar and energy efficiency upgrades. I’m not about to try covering them all. But there are two important ones that every homeowner and rental investor should know about, especially if they’re thinking about installing solar.

Homeowners can receive a tax credit in the amount of 30% of the cost of solar. If you buy a $15,000 system, you get a $4,500 tax credit. Pretty sweet!

But, if your home or rental is in a low-income area you can get a 10% bonus. Further, if your home is in an energy community, you can get an additional 10%.

All this could add up to a 50% tax credit.

Now, that $15,000 system will only net out to be $7,500…and that’s before additional state/utility company rebates and accelerated depreciation (if you’re putting solar on a rental property).

The DOE has two tools that have made it very easy to determine whether your property is in one or both of these zones:

Low Income Community:
https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/12227d891a4d471497ac13f60fffd822/page/Page/

Energy Zone:
https://arcgis.netl.doe.gov/portal/apps/experiencebuilder/experience/?id=a2ce47d4721a477a8701bd0e08495e1d