Energy Tax Credits for homeowners & businesses (solar, geothermal, fuel cell etc.)

[Dover]

Fuel Cell Tax Credit Extended.

President Bush approved a bill that will extend federal tax credits for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. The wide-ranging Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 provides a one-year tax credit extension for new properties that produce geothermal power or make use of solar energy; for homeowners that purchase solar water heating, solar photovoltaic, or fuel cell systems; for businesses that purchase fiber-optic lighting systems, solar energy systems, or fuel cell power plants; for new energy efficient homes; and for energy efficiency improvements to commercial buildings. The credit allows businesses and property owners to deduct $1000 per kilowatt, or up to 30% of the cost of the fuel cell system.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/12/20061220-2.html

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

1. Another rich helping the rich story

Come on...the price of solar equipment is expensive. Only the rich can buy a good system to get an tax break.

[Nihil]

2. So start with the people who can afford it!

> the price of solar equipment is expensive. Only the rich can buy
> a good system to get an tax break.

Hence the financial encouragement for the people who *can* currently
afford it to DO IT. This will help to bring the price down to more
affordable levels for others to DO IT.

Yes, I take your point that this is largely a "let's help our rich friends"
credit that will no doubt, go away by the time that the equipment is more
readily affordable but I'd much rather see tax credits for this than for
monster SUVs ...

[Dogmudgeon]

3. It's like school vouchers

It's a gimmee for the rich. The poor won't be able to afford the improvements, period.

We need to do some serious screaming for lower-income energy tax credits.

--p!

[Nihil]

4. It is (but probably not in the way you meant)

Maybe you mean something different by "school vouchers" but the ones
we have here have *really* helped the lower income parents by providing
access to nursery education that they would otherwise not be able to
afford. Only the lower income parents are eligible so the rich don't gain.

:shrug:

Back to the main point,

> The poor won't be able to afford the improvements, period.

Correct and this situation will remain until the manufacturers are no
longer sizing for a niche market but for a mass market.

How is the best way to get the per-unit price lower? Generate enough
demand from whatever segment of the market is able to buy-in at this
stage of the game - the "trust-fund kids", the "eco-middle-class" and
other people who are both ecologically aware *and* rich enough to
do it today (rather than in five, ten, twenty years down the line).
We haven't got that five/ten/twenty years of grace, we need the change
now and we need it to be as large as possible. If that means subsidising
people in full employment in good jobs ("rich") then so be it.

> We need to do some serious screaming for lower-income energy
> tax credits.

There are far more important ways to help the lower-income than by
playing games with transient tax credits.

[Dover]

5. Hopefully some 'wealthy' developers will seize on this opportunity

and build housing (for all economic brackets) that are more energy efficient. That saving would pass directly to the new owners/renters. Small businesses need a nudge to put these technologies to use. I don't know if, for instance, the fuel cell market/technology has developed to the point where it is all that accessible to the individual or even the small business owner but maybe tax credits will create more interest and demand and encourage further development of these markets.