New Hampshire State Solar Power Rebates, Tax Credits, and Incentives

New Hampshire State Picture

Solar Legislator Score:

Not bad, but there has been little legislative effort promoting residential solar power.

The State of New Hampshire appears to have a fairly aggressive program aimed at promoting energy efficiency, in both residential and business applications. However, the only recent solar initiative has been to mandate higher use of renewable energy sources by the state’s electric utility providers. Incentives for residential users have been very limited.

State Legislation

The most significant solar power legislation, House Bill 0873, was signed into law on May 11th, 2007 by New Hampshire Governor John Lynch. The “Electric Renewable Portfolio Standard” will require electric utilities to utilize solar power for 0.3% of their electrical power generation by the year 2014. The law also requires that by 2025, 16% of the state’s electricity needs must be supplied by other renewable energy sources. The full text of the bill can be found at:
HB0873.

Another state initiative, the “New Hampshire Solar on Schools Program” deserves honorable mention. Under grants administered by a joint partnership of the Governor’s Office of Energy and Community Service (ECS), Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH), and Solar Works, Inc., of Wilton, NH, selected high schools are being equipped with a roof-mounted 1-kilowatt photovoltaic cell solar system. The program was started in 1998.

Utility Rebates, Utility Loans and Utility Programs

New Hampshire has a population of about 1.3 million people and an area of roughly 9,000 square miles that ranks it 40-something in size in the nation. In 2006, it was among the top 15 states participating in the EPA/DOE joint “Energy Star” program, in which 17% of the new homes being built in New Hampshire are typically 20% - 30% more energy efficient than conventional housing.

Although the state offers a number of incentive programs to businesses and homeowners for energy efficiency, few incentives are provided to promote alternative energy sources. “The State of New Hampshire does not offer grants, loans or rebates for the purchase or installation of renewable energy systems”, reports the state’s Office of Energy and Planning.

State law allows municipalities to offer renewable incentives in the form of property tax exemptions; 62 cities and towns (a little more than one-third of New Hampshire’s municipalities) offer these incentives. Solar technologies included under NH RSAs 72:61-72 are photovoltaics, solar space heating, solar water heating, and passive solar. Further information is available at: nh.gov

Example: 645 kWh/Month System - Home Installation Cost

Manchester, in the county of Hillsboro, is New Hampshire’s largest city with over 125,000 business establishments, approximately 110,000 people, and more than 583,000 housing units. The average residential electric utility bill in Hillsboro County is $87/month, just slightly under the national average. The area is rated “Good” for relative suitability of solar power.

Alas, only about one-third of New Hampshire’s municipalities offer property tax incentives for home-owners who install solar power or other renewable energy sources, and the city of Manchester is not one of them. Other state or municipal solar power incentives are equally lacking, leaving only federal tax credits as incentives to home-owners. Installation costs vary, but a mid-range system cost of $31,500 (net $29,500 after applying a $2,000 federal tax credit) was assumed in this example to achieve a 50% reliance on solar power. It should be noted that a roof area of 300 square feet is required.

Estimated monthly system cost of $29,500 amortized at 6.5% over 30 years: $186/month
Average utility savings: $61/month*
25-year utility savings: $18,169*
Increase in property value: $8,660

*Utility savings assume a 3.78% annual utility inflation rate.

Consensus

To an observer, New Hampshire appears to be fairly progressive in its approach to reducing energy consumption, but is doing little to encourage the residential use of renewable energy sources. Is the state missing an important opportunity here?

Click here to have multiple solar installers bid to upgrade your New Hampshire home or business.

4 comments.

Dave

Comment on January 8th, 2008.

Hello. We have a one year old house that has radiant heat, and we use propane for heating, hot water, cooking, etc. (everything except for our electric dryer). Our electric bill is around $120/month, and we use about 1000-1100 gallons of propane a year.

First of all, even though we have radiant heat, and we use propane to heat the hot water, is there any sort of a solar setup that could help us reduce the amount of propane that we use? Is there a separate heating unit that could work in conjunction with our radiant heating system to help us cut back on propane use? Is our electric bill expensive enough where the savings with solar power would be justified in a reasonable amount of time? Could solar power help us cut back on electric and propane costs?

Thank you very much in advance for any information you can provide.

Amy

Comment on June 4th, 2008.

Hi
I live in a small town in NH and since we do not have a state wide policy on renewable energy I am trying to have the town adopt one. I have writen up a petition and have received the required amount of signatures for the statutes to be placed on the agenda for the next town meeting. Where do I go from here? Is there a protocol to follow when adopting these statutes? Any information would be tremendously helpful.
Thank you.

BEL

Comment on June 23rd, 2008.

I am in the processs of building a home in New Hampshire and I was wondering about solar to help in the heating. We are putting in radiant heating along with forced hot water.
Any advise?

Paul

Comment on July 15th, 2008.

Hello
I own a campground in New Hampshire and I’m looking for info to have solar installed on the campers roof tops.Do you know where I can get the product ?