There’s a robust financial benefit to installing solar for those located in the Washington DC area. Here’s your rule of thumb on solar projects in Washington DC:
- Payback time of a solar project between 2.5 and 3.5 years
Financial benefits overview:- Federal Tax credit of 30% of the entire project cost.
- This 30% tax credit will disappear in a few years
- Electricity savings
- The power than one produces with solar is offsetting the power from the utility company. It’s offsetting the full power price including transmission, taxes and expensive demand charges in some regions
- Net metering: All the produced solar power that one can not instantly use will be transferred to the grid with a credit system so that one can, later on, use the same power from the grid.
- Depreciation
- Companies can claim an Accelerated Depreciation of a solar system called MACRS.
- Renewable Energy Credit REC: The most value of a solar system is in the sRECs.The owner of a solar system gets 1 credit (1 sREC) for every 1MWh of electricity produced that can be sold on an sREC market. The value of an sREC is $470 in Washington DC.
- Marketing
- There are clear marketing benefits of installing solar, yet we never try to estimate these benefits as they vary widely from project to project.
- For some companies, this might outweigh all other direct financial benefits
- Property value
- We never include property value increase in our calculations.
- Studies in California show a clear increase in property value. Happy to share this study if needed.
Environmental benefits overview:
By producing your own power with solar you displace the need for power generation from utility companies that have a portfolio of energy sources primarily based on coal and natural gas that release carbon emissions to produce electricity.
