How To Get Free Solar Panels From The Government
Have you seen offers about getting free solar panels? Or getting paid to go solar?
Are those offers sound too good to be true?
Solar panels can be an excellent investment for a home. It’s almost a certainty that they will reduce your electric bill. In some cases, they may even eliminate your bill.
But the costs to install them can be quite high (though the costs have come down a lot over the past decade). Some homeowners can make up the cost of the panels in just 5 years or so through the savings on their electric bill. For others, it can take 10 – 20 years.
It really depends on how high your electricity bill is each month and how much electricity your panels can generate.
If you can get free panels and not have the big upfront costs, then solar makes a lot more financial sense. But can you get free panels?
Below we’ll answer the question of “how to get free solar panels from the government” and see if it’s a true claim or not. So let’s get right to it.
How To Get Free Solar Panels From The Government
The truth is that you cannot get free solar panels from the government. It’s a claim that definitely falls into the “too good to be true” category.
But, hold up. There’s more to the story than that. While you may not be able to get free panels from the government, you can get some nice financial benefits still.
So while the government, whether it be the federal and/or your state government can offer up some amazing benefits that will help you take $1000s of the cost of installing panels on your home.
Federal Solar Tax Credit
The federal government currently has a tax credit for purchasing and installing a solar panel in your property. This is often known as the Investment Tax Credit, or ITC.
There is now a 30 percent tax credit available from the federal government that homeowners can take advantage of when installing solar on their homes.
This went up from 26 percent in 2022 with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. This tax credit is now available for homeowners who add solar to their homes over the next 10 years (it would have been eliminated in 2024 if Congress had not acted).
The federal government is not just the only ones that provide incentives for the purchase and installments of solar panels on your property. Many local and state governments also provide incentives for owning a solar panel and using it.
However, what incentives you will benefit from will differ from state to state. They tend to be a combination of tax credits, net metering, and low interest rate loans.
Leasing “Free” Panels
But what about the “free solar panels” that you hear about and see in advertisements? Are they really free, or are they just a scam?
Well, these “free solar panels” are actually leases. And they are not actually free either.
It is pretty much a marketing strategy to lure in potential customers. The tactic there is that they will convince you to sign a solar lease or a power purchase agreement.
Under these solar lease agreements, the solar panels will be installed on your home for no down payment amount. Instead, you will pay a monthly payment for the energy that the solar panel produces.
It is pretty much like just replacing your utility bill payments with solar panel monthly bills.
However, in the opinion of many, solar leases are not the best choice if you want to switch to solar power. Solar leases may work if all goes smoothly with your panels and the company you get them from.
However, there are problems that you will encounter when you sign a solar lease, then you decide to change your mind or you sell your home, or your solar panel experiences production issues.
So, while they may seem appealing, you have to read the fine print and do the math to see if leasing really makes sense for you. And, remember, either way, the panels will not be “free”.
In conclusion, you can get a nice size discount from the government if you get solar panels. However, they will not be giving you free panels anytime soon.