For Massachusetts residents, the answer is a convincing yes!

Due to the many incentives at both the state as well as the federal level for solar panels, there really has never been a better time to go green with solar energy. Just about all residential solutions will pay for themselves in less than five years.

The typical retail price for a five kW solar panel set up is just about $25,000. This system will produce somewhere around 6,000 kWh of electrical energy every twelve months in Massachusetts and provide just about 60% of the usual residential home’s energy requirements.

There’s a Commonwealth Rebate that will deduct $2,000 off the price. Moreover, if you should live in a modest residence or earn a moderate salary, you are likely to be given an additional $2,000 off. Or if you happen to have been unlucky enough to have your home damaged in last year’s tornadoes, you will receive a further $5,000 reduction.

There’s also both federal and Massachusetts state tax credits. The federal tax credit sits at a whopping 30% while the state credit is for $1,000. After the rebates and additionally the tax credits, you should be able to obtain a 5 kW solar panel array for $16,000, less in case you receive the moderate income or moderate home value adders.

A complete system of that size here in Massachusetts ought to provide an average of about 80 dollars worth of electricity monthly for a yearly savings of $1,000.

But the long-term profits come from auctioning off your SRECs. One megawatt hour (1,000 kWh) is equivalent to one SREC and a 5 kW system will ideally generate nearly 6,000 kWh annually. Since the state has required the electricity companies to produce a small percentage of their electricity from renewable techniques, they will pay you about $400 for every one of your 6 SRECs so they can say that you are generating electrical energy for them. So that’s an extra $2,400 in tax-free income right into your wallet annually.

Now you can see how a $16,000 solar panel system can get paid off in less than five short years when it nets $3,400 annually between electricity savings and SREC proceeds.

Solar panels can also be one of the best home improvement possibilities open to the Mass. resident. For a cost of $16,000, it should increase the worth of your house by $20,000. That is a 125% ROI. Nearly all home improvement projects won’t pay for themselves completely. Solar panels not only increase the value of your house more than they can run you, they will bring in revenue each year too. They’re also exempt from property taxes for 20 years.

And let us not forget the main reason each of these incentives exist in the first place – to save our planet. A five kW solar panel array can slash your carbon footprint by about 100 tons of carbon dioxide over twenty-five years, the equivalent of planting 800 trees. Every year, it’s going to stop the equivalent of around three tons of coal or 20,000 cubic feet of natural gas from being used to produce electrical energy.

As you can tell from all the stimuli currently offered that right now absolutely would be the right time for solar power. The Commonwealth Rebate and the federal and state tax credits cut down your initial costs. Plus the electricity savings as well as the SREC program add significant returns and boost your home’s resale amount.

Furthermore there’s simply no telling how much longer all of these incentives will be around. The Commonwealth Rebate has already been decreased recently plus the federal tax credit has been threatened yearly.

Lastly, while this business matures, progressively more financing options are becoming available to homeowners, making solar power economical for anyone. Without a doubt if you’ve always wanted to purchase solar panels, there has certainly never been a more rewarding time than now!

Gary S. Best lives in Massachusetts and spent months investigating the different incentives and financing options before deciding to purchase a five kW solar panel system in 2011. He has since created a website, www.MassSolarInfo.com, educating residents about solar energy in Massachusetts and providing them with a means to easily get free estimates and save up to $500 off their own installation.