Solar incentives and rebates in Ohio
Ohio has a Solar Renewable Energy Certificate system, which grants certificates for each megawatt-hour of renewable energy generated. As a residential producer, you can sell these certificates as the state works toward their benchmarks for amounts of renewable energy they want to produce.
Ohio has also implemented net metering, which is a program that allows you to sell excess solar-generated energy back to the conventional electricity grid. The credits to your bill can enable you to pay very little for electricity even if you have to use grid energy for your cloudy-day and nighttime energy use.
If you’re using loans to finance your solar panels in Ohio, you can receive Ohio solar incentives in the form of interest rate reduction from ECO-Link. You also qualify for the federal solar panel tax credit that reduces the costs of the solar panels by 26 percent in 2021.
Solar energy in Ohio may help lower your electric bills
Ohio electric bills may vary, but with an average rate of 11.91 cents per kWh in May 2021 and electricity usage of 895 kWh per month on average, the average monthly bill is $106.59. This means approximately $1279.13 in electric costs a year.
At this rate, an average $15,000 solar power installation would take about 12 years before it paid for itself in electricity.
Solar energy costs per watt depend on the lifespan and efficiency of the solar panel. These costs, however, have continued to come down and the more incentives you take advantage of, the lower the cost goes.