In March 2015, the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources published "The Energy Report: A Snapshot of North Carolina’s Energy Portfolio Seven Years After Session Law 2007-397."
The report is well worth digesting, especially given the ongoing debate in North Carolina over state subsidies, incentives, tax credits, and the renewable energy portfolio standard (REPS) purchase mandate for renewable energy, partiucularly solar energy.
Take this selection, for example, on the delightful combination of federal and state investment tax credits and accelerated depreciation schedules for investing in solar:
The 35 percent ITC [investment tax credit] granted under S.L. 2005-413 has been one of the key drivers in renewable energy development in the state and has helped North Carolina to become third in the nation in solar installations. Solar energy investors with sufficient tax liability may combine the 35 percent state ITC with the 30 percent federal ITC and the bonus accelerated depreciation schedule to return almost all of their investment within six years and may receive 57.8 percent of their investment back through tax credits and depreciation deductions within 12 months of placing into service. For an investor subject to a 35 percent federal tax rate and a 5 percent state tax rate, the previous page demonstrates how much of the solar energy investment is returned each year through tax incentives.
The chart from the previous page that shows the cumulative total of how much solar energy investment is returned per year through those six years is available here.
Click here for the Rights & Regulation Update archive.
You can unsubscribe to this and all future e-mails from the John Locke Foundation by clicking the "Manage Subscriptions" button at the top of this newsletter
