Currents

An Energy Newsletter for Local Governments

LBNL Study of Berkeley’s Solar Tax Assessment Plan

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has announced the latest installment in the series "Case Studies of State Support for Renewable Energy." This new case study is titled "Property Tax Assessments as a Finance Vehicle for Residential PV Installations: Opportunities and Potential Limitations."

It describes the mechanics of a new type of photovoltaic (PV) financing program recently proposed by the City of Berkeley, and being considered by other cities throughout the U.S. Specifically, these cities propose to offer their residents the ability to utilize increased property tax assessments as a means of repaying over time the up-front cost of installing PV systems.

Although this type of program has a number of appealing features, two fundamental program characteristics -- government involvement and an attractive interest rate -- may cause the IRS to consider such programs to be "subsidized energy financing," which in turn would reduce or eliminate the ability of program participants to take advantage of the Federal investment tax credit for solar.

This case study explores this particular issue through both a rudimentary review of relevant tax law, as well as a quantitative analysis of the potential financial benefit of such programs relative to commercially available financing alternatives, and how much of that relative benefit might be eroded by the possible loss of the Federal credit.

Download the case study (PDF 112KB)

| Back | Next |