{"id":2055,"date":"2011-05-09T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-09T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/georgia-clean-energy-tax-credits-yes-they-are-available.html"},"modified":"2011-05-09T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-09T15:00:00","slug":"georgia-clean-energy-tax-credits-yes-they-are-available","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/georgia-clean-energy-tax-credits-yes-they-are-available.html","title":{"rendered":"Georgia clean energy tax credits: yes, they are available"},"content":{"rendered":"Inquiring minds want to know if Georgia still has its energy rebate program.\nThe answer is yes.\n

\n\n<\/a>\nThe usual place to look for state tax incentives is\n\nDSIRETM<\/sup><\/small><\/a>\n(Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency).\nThat database shows for Georgia not only state\nfinancial incentives but also a local loan program for\nAthens-Clarke County\nand a local rebate program for Atlanta.\nThere’s a thought!\nValdosta or Lowndes County could do a loan program for real clean renewable energy!\nor the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) could do that\nusing some of its $15 million in bonds and other debt, assuming it hasn’t\nalready spent all of it on locking up land.\n

\nOr Georgia Power or Colquitt Electric could do that,\n\n\ngiven that dozens of other electric utilities around the state already do.\n

\nThere is also the federal rebate program of 30%\nand USDA has an agricultural program which I’m told can go up to 75%.\n

\nThis wide range of programs is why renewable energy financing\nis complicated, and it would be most useful if some local entity\n(public or private) took on organizing financing.\nMore on that later.\n

\n\n<\/a>\nThe immediate question was about Georgia.\nThe Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) handles that,\nand \ntheir web page says it’s active.<\/a>\n

\nAt the last minute, the Georgia legislature not only refunded\nbut even\n\nexpanded the program, according to Wes Hudson\nin the Atlanta Business Chronicle, 20 April 2011:<\/a>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nSection 3A of Senate Substitute for HB 346 amends and expands the existing\nGeorgia Renewable Energy Tax Credit, O.C.G.A. Section 48-7-29.14. The\namendment extends the renewable energy tax credit to the year ending\nDec. 31, 2014, and for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 it newly expands\nthe total statewide credit amount from $2.5 million to $5 million in\neach of the years 2012-2014. The tax credit in these later periods is to\nbe realized over a four year period. In addition, in any year where the\namounts above are fully claimed, those who apply for the state energy\ncredit but couldn’t get any are added to a list based on the date they\nfirst applied for the credit, and are given first priority in the next\nyear, over and above others in the later year who also filed. All other\naspects of the existing tax credit remain the same.\n<\/blockquote>\nThe legislature has even gotten it about renewable energy being\na smart path to generate jobs:\n
\nThe legislature made two amendments to renewable energy and conservation\ntax credits which continues to put Georgia on a smart path. Expected to\nbe signed by Governor Nathan Deal, the conservation tax credit (Section\n3 of House Bill 346) and the renewable energy tax credit (Section 3A of\nHB 346) amendments put jobs and economic growth at the forefront.\n

\nIt seems that renewable energy as an economic development base is\n(finally) gaining momentum at the highest levels. Having previously lost\nmajor manufacturing plants (jobs, added tax base, etc.) to neighboring\nstates, Georgia extending tax credits in this realm is a smart move. Even\nthough many thought all tax incentives were supposed to be at risk due\nto budget cuts, challenged state and local budgets and other drivers,\nthe Georgia legislature saw the light.\n<\/blockquote>\nThe other amendment was about transfer of real property for tax credits;\nsee\n\nthe article<\/a> for the details.\n

\n\n<\/a>\nSo yes, Georgia has tax incentives for renewable energy.\nFor 35%. Add the 30% federal tax rebate and that’s 65%.\nIt works: I used it in 2009\nin reinstalling my solar panels on my farm workshop.\n

\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inquiring minds want to know if Georgia still has its energy rebate program. The answer is yes. The usual place to look for state tax incentives is DSIRETM (Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency). That database shows for Georgia not only state financial incentives but also a local loan program for Athens-Clarke County […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,264,265,16,24,178,36],"tags":[931,2893,2865,1031,1970,8701,612,7,611,8714,60,6,8749,8716],"class_list":["post-2055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-energy-conservation","category-energy-efficiency","category-environment","category-solar","category-vlcia","category-wind","tag-conservation","tag-credit","tag-dsire","tag-efficiency","tag-gefa","tag-georgia","tag-loan","tag-lowndes-county","tag-rebate","tag-solar","tag-tax","tag-valdosta","tag-vlcia","tag-wind"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-x9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}