Claiming solar incentives

How you go about claiming a solar incentives largely depends on the type of incentive it is:

Claiming tax credits

Whether it’s a state tax credit or the federal investment tax credit (ITC), you can’t claim any of these incentives until you file your taxes. For the ITC, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide that will walk you through the forms (e.g. IRS form 5695) and everything else you’ll need to take advantage of this incentive.

Claiming state or local rebates

Most often, your installer will handle any legwork related to claiming rebates. In fact, it’s common for incentive operators to pay rebates directly to your installer–who then subtract the value from your overall installation costs.

Claiming performance-based incentives (PBIs)

Since PBI incentive values are based on the electricity production of your solar panel system, you’ll get paid out over time. Whether it’s a utility company or a state agency offering a PBI incentive, it’s common for your installer to assist in applying for these incentive programs (or handle it entirely from their end).

Claiming solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs)

Like other types of performance-based incentives, SRECs are typically paid out over time. Most people work directly with an SREC broker or aggregator to sell SRECs.

Popular brokers include:

SRECTrade
SolSystems
Knollwood Energy

Though it’s most common to sell SRECs over time, some aggregators, brokers, solar companies, and financiers offer the opportunity to pre-sell your SRECs at a fixed price.

Claiming solar equipment / manufacturer rebates on EnergySage

You can find the steps for claiming an equipment rebate through EnergySage in this article.