California has been a leader among states in investing in renewable energy initiatives and encouraging residents and businesses to join the green energy revolution. Solar panel installations have a range of incentives that we will be visiting in this program for commercial clients. Here at Premiere Renewables, we offer turnkey solar power solutions with design, financial analysis, installation, and maintenance for agribusiness, manufacturing, commercial, non-profit organizations, and government solar clients. When it comes to making the most of your solar installations, it’s important that you are taking advantage of the solar programs that California provides for commercial and governmental solar installations.
CaliforniaFIRST
The CaliforniaFIRST Program is a Property Assessed Clean energy (PACE) program that is only for non-residential properties. The program encourages property owners to invest in sustainable water and energy upgrades to their buildings and to pay it the invested amount back through property taxes. The CaliforniaFIRST program targets commercial, industrial, agricultural, and multi-family buildings (must be over five units) such as apartments. There are 120 cities throughout California and 14 counties that are participating in the program. If you are in the central valley we can help you figure these expenses into our financial projection of the project as we custom design the right solar power solution for your business.
Merced Irrigation District Solar Panel Program
Much like a range of other irrigation districts, the Merced irrigation district offers a rebate for installing photovoltaic solar power systems and solar panels on residential, commercial, and non-profit buildings. The rebate may have changed, but their 2015 rebate is $1.00 per watt depending on your solar power system’s performance, with a maximum of $25,000 back for commercial and non-profit systems.
Agricultural Solar Power Facilities: Partial Sales and Use Tax Exemption
California has been a big proponent of agricultural solar power, where the addition of solar farms to agricultural property can cut energy costs and outprice tapping into the California’s power grid within feet of a power line. California has created a tax exemption on all state sales and and use taxes for the photovoltaic solar farms and the farm equipment that it powers that is used primarily (more than 50%) in producing and harvesting agricultural goods. In addition, the system doesn’t need to be plugged directly into the farm equipment and can simply generate the equivalent electricity used by the equipment but be connected back into the electrical grid. To qualify, applicants need to prove that the the farm equipment uses at least half of the electricity produced per year by the solar power system. The equipment must be owned or leased.
There is a wide range of solar incentive programs across California depending on your business’ energy provider and location. To learn more, contact us or you local government. We at Premiere Renewables offer a range of services for commercial solar installations, including financial analysis, custom engineered, fast, and professional installation, and maintenance for our advanced solar power systems. We service government buildings, non-profits, manufacturing, commercial, and agricultural businesses. Contact us today!