financial

You’ve put your home, with its solar array, on the market. Potential buyers may understand the benefits and responsibilities of solar—or they may not. While many environmentally-aware house shoppers see solar for what it is, a many-sided benefit, others may be concerned about its effect on the home’s value, the responsibilities of upkeep, and whether sun power will really save them money. Being set up with a few convincing facts can make the difference between a “thanks-but-no-thanks” and an offer.

If you’re putting your solar-panel-equipped house on the market, your likely buyer will either:

1. know that having solar power is a big advantage, or
2. have some questions and concerns about it—maybe even a little bit of both.

If you have a solar home to sell, you’re in luck! Those photovoltaic panels can be a strong selling point. Solar not only saves homebuyers money on utility bills, it can add substantially to a home’s resale value. It’s also easy to maintain and monitor, and it contributes to building a better energy future. But you need to know a few important things about the home and its system before you put it on the market.

The short answer is: yes.

By 2022, the federal investment tax credit (ITC) for installing a home solar system, a real help in paying for residential solar, is coming to an end.

Along with public-sector initiatives like tax credits, some energy utilities offer or participate in programs that help solar customers offset the costs of installation.

Uncle Sam allows you to claim a credit of 26 percent of the expense of a residential or commercial solar power system installed in 2020 on your 2020 federal taxes.

The tax credits that you can take advantage of when you install a solar system are basically a legacy of the “energy crisis” of the 1970s.

Of course it’s an affordable, clean source of renewable energy. But what you might not know is that solar power is also an economic jobs engine—in fact, it’s the top energy job producer in the United States. According to the 2018 National Solar Jobs Census, America now has more than 242,000 solar workers. The job census reports that solar energy adds jobs 17 times faster than the overall economy.

You’ve seen solar panels on top of houses, and you know they’re there to produce energy. Beyond that, solar power may seem pretty complicated. The truth is, it’s fairly simple.