Renewable Energy Grants and Credits

Renewable Energy Grants and Credits thrugh the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Renewable Credits Program

Unless you’re totally new to the idea of renewable geothermal, solar and wind energy in the last few months, you should already be aware of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The ARRA, which provides billions designed to restart the sagging economy is your best friend when it comes to renewable geothermal, solar and wind power energy credits.

Under Section 1603 of the Act, Congress has authorized the issuance of direct grants instead of tax credits for renewable energy projects placed into service or begun in 2009 or 2010. The only draw back is that the grants are for businesses only!  BIG FAILURE on congress’ part in my book.  With that, the Department of Energy just issued guidance on how the program is supposed to work.

For those who might be interested in developing renewable solar, wind or geothermal energy for “commercial” projects, these grants will help to defray some of the initial costs of aquiring, shipping and installing these renewable energy technologies.

This program is set up to provide “up to” $3 billion for specific types of renewable energy type projects. Grants for 30 percent of the total costs (including installation parts and labor) are available for a variety of renewable energy projects.  Eligible “Large” renewable energy projects include large wind turbines, biomass, landfill gas, hydropower, and solar panel (photovoltaic) facilities. Grants of ten percent are also available for small scale wind, geothermal, and combined heat and power projects.

While the Department of Energy is not yet accepting any applications as of this writing… payments for the grants will be made within 60 days of receipt of the approved application or after the date the project is placed into service, whichever is later.

We were able to find a sample application for those of our readers that are interested in getting a head start in the applicant process and to use in review.  This way you can begin collecting the required renewable energy information necessary in oder for you to obtain the energy grants.

Note: The grant recipients when approved cannot also accept tax credits for the same project.

In this way, the Obama Administration and the Department of Energy hope to stimulate the development of renewable energy projects and the economy by providing cash directly, instead of requiring developers to wait for tax credits that may never be used.

You have to get started now though as the window of opportunity for these Renewable Energy grants is limited. Projects must be placed in service in 2009 or 2010 and applications cannot be submitted after October 1, 2011.

All of which is subject to change at government will… so what else is new!

More updates to follow,

Wes Waddell

www.BuildingSolarNews.info

Tags: credit, generator, grant, photovoltaic, PV Solar, renewable energy, solar, wind