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Incentives & Rebates
System by system, Smucker’s Energy has been helping the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic United States take control of its energy costs by utilizing reduced component costs and the countless incentive programs at both local and Federal levels.
Start Saving Today
Solar energy presents a welcome relief to the financial strain being felt all over the country by skyrocketing electric bills. In addition to the cost incentives immediately available, making the switch to solar presents many other benefits. It’s a great boost to the value of your property, and that value boost is non-taxable in many locations, such as New York State, where your property taxes are not allowed to increase because of a renewable energy system. It’s a tremendous financial investment that positions you to reap the benefits of free energy for years to come and take your ROI to a new level. And of course, you’re reducing your carbon footprint, helping the environment, and becoming part of the green energy solution that is making our planet a better place to live.
Keep reading to find out how much we can help you save!
Discover Your State’s Incentives
Click on your state in the Smucker’s service map to learn more about what’s being offered to help you save money on your alternative energy installation. We have plenty of experience dealing with Federal and local government offerings of all kinds, and we’re prepared to help you offset as much of your system expense as possible.
Federal Tax Credit
The federal government offers a 30% tax credit (known as the Solar Investment Tax Credit) with no cap (a limit of $2,000 was removed from residential systems back in 2008). It’s important to note that this is a credit and not a deduction; a deduction is removed from your taxable income, but a credit is directly removed from your final tax liability. If the 30% exceeds your total tax liability for that year, it can be rolled over to the following year and further deducted from your tax liability. it can also be transferable to another entity with some restrictions . Currently, the 30% credit period ends on December 31st, 2032. Now is the time to move on making the switch to clean energy. Contact a Smucker’s representative today to find out how much you can save by going solar
Net Metering
Net metering is another money-saving aspect of going solar that more and more states are integrating into their clean energy policies; 43 of the 50 states have adopted net-metering policies as of 2015. The basic principle is as follows: excess electricity generated by a solar system can be fed back onto the grid and credited to a customer in two ways: (1) it can be reserved as stored or “banked” production with the local utility that the customer can draw down from when his system isn’t producing electricity, and (2) further excess electricity beyond the customer’s consumption can (in some states) be sold back to the power provider. This excess, when sold back, is typically sold at a wholesale rate to the utility and is capped in some states (such as in New York, where the overage limit is 10%). Generally speaking, 10% of production is where your system size stops being financially advantageous due to the added cost of sizing up the system.
Virtual Net Metering
Virtual/remote net metering is a great way for individuals with multiple facilities or locations to install a system on the most suitable site (economically and geographically) and reap the benefits across their various meters. Virtual net metering allows companies and organizations to have one centrally-located system produce for multiple meters under the same ownership so that only one system is necessary to offset energy consumption for multiple facilities, then proceed to sell the excess production back to the local utility. Solar systems for multiple meters are sized to accommodate the power needs of all the buildings it needs to offset. If you’re a business or organization with several buildings connected to different meters, you stand to benefit in a big way from the benefits that net metering and virtual net metering offer.
PPL Commercial Rate (GSI) Rebate
PPL Electric Utilities is offering a business solar incentive in 2023-2024. The rebate is $0.03/kWh for project costs up to $500,000, this is calculated and based on energy usage from PPL and not on estimated solar production. Clients without kWh usage are not eligible for a rebate. Smucker's Energy handles the pre-approval rebate and Utility applications. Once PPL has reviewed the rebate application (Approx. 15 business days) confirmation will be sent through email stating approx. $ rebate amount. After Smucker's Energy has installed solar PV system PPL requires several months monitoring documentation before releasing rebate payment.
USDA REAP Grant
For rural small companies, local government offices, and agricultural businesses (such as farms), the United States Department of Agriculture instituted a grant/loan program in 2003 that sought to assist these institutions in establishing clean, renewable energy sources (like solar systems and wind generators) that would ultimately lead to massive cost savings. With the USDA accepting grants for 2023-2024 with Quarterly deadlines starting on June 30, 2023 and ending in Sept. 30, 2024. Smucker’s stands ready to help you save thousands on your eligible solar installation by handling the applications for the grant from start to finish.
If you qualify for a USDA grant, you may be in a position to save over 25-50% of your base system cost with the Federal tax credit, depreciation and other local incentives taken into consideration now is the time to invest on solar energy.
RECs, SRECs, and AECs
What Are They?
If you’ve spent any time researching the financial aspects of the solar market, you’ve no doubt run into the conversation regarding RECs—Renewable Energy Credits, also known as Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) and Alternative Energy Credits (AECs). Although a lot of confusion can stem from the various names and resources, the important thing to understand, first off, is that these are all one and the same. They are credits (and we’ll refer to them hereafter as SRECs), monitored by a state-specific tracking system, that are generated by your PV system’s energy production—for every megawatt hour (mWh) your system produces, you receive one SREC from the tracking entity your system is registered with. A 15-kilowatt system in the Northeastern United States will produce, on average, about 18,000-kilowatt hours of production over the course of a year—or approximately 18 SRECs.