Will the Government Really Pay Me for My Solar Garden Fountain?
I have recently read many articles about solar garden fountains to better research information for my readers. A great majority of these articles indicate that the purchase of a solar garden fountain may qualify you for a tax rebate or tax credit. After some pretty exhaustive research I can assure you that if you live in the United States, the short the answer is NO a solar garden fountain does NOT qualify for any tax rebates or credits. (Unless of course you are above average at finding loop-holes in Federal Tax laws and you purchased your fountain between 2005 and 2008.)
There was a Federal Government incentive that began in 2005 with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, this act established a 30% tax credit ($2,000 cap) for the purchase and installation of residential solar electric and solar watering heating property along with a 30% tax credit ($500 per 0.5 kilowatt cap) for fuel cells. This tax credit expired at the end of 2007 but was extended through Dec. 31, 2008 by the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006. In October of 2008 the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 was passed extending the tax credit to December 31, 2016. These tax bills are very specific and refer to the installation of solar electric panels, solar water heating systems and fuel cells ONLY (with later editions adding small wind-energy systems and geothermal heat pump systems). The newest bill out, approved in February of this year (2009) removed the maximum credit amounts for all eligible technologies (fuel cells exempted) placed in service after 2008 but did not add any other technologies.
If you would like to read more about these bills I suggest visiting the Library of Congress on line at http://www.thomas.gov But please be aware this is a huge and extremely busy site and it is often very difficult to get it to load.
As for State and local incentives and possible tax breaks for solar garden fountains I was not able to find a single state that offered either of these. However I would like to give you a good resource that you can use to further research your particular state.
The parent site’s name is DSIRE which stands for Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency. This database was developed and is maintained by the North Carolina Solar Center, NC State University, College of Engineering. http://www.dsireusa.org/ For more specific information regarding solar energy the sub-site is DESIRE SOLAR and can be accessed by clicking on the large red box on the right of the parent site or you can visit the sub-site directly here: http://www.dsireusa.org/solar/index.cfm?ee=1&RE=1&spf=1&st=1
I hope this information has been helpful even if a little disappointing. As always I welcome comments in the space provided below and I urge you to contact me (at info@solargardenfountains.net) if you are seeking more information regarding solar garden fountains and solar fountain pumps or if you have ideas on articles you would like to see here.
