Fresh Loaf

State tax credits for a variety of energy-efficiency improvements and installations on homes and businesses are now available. The eligibility criteria is available for viewing at the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority’s website.

The perks cap out at $2.5 million each year and will be pro-rated among the applicants. The credits sprang from HB 670, a piece of legislation that Pam Davidson, one of the Republican candidates for the Public Service Comission, helped push through the notoriously un-progressive General Assembly this past session.

Here are some facts from a GEFA press release.

Consistent with Governor Perdue’s commitment to the Conserve Georgia campaign and the Governor’s Energy Challenge, the tax credit creates an income tax credit for a variety of energy efficient and renewable energy technologies including:

• Active solar space heating;

• Solar electric and solar thermal electric;

• Wind;

• Certain bio-electricity facilities (non-residential only);

• Geothermal heat pumps;

• Efficient lighting (non-residential only); and

• Energy efficient buildings (non-residential only).

“The Georgia Clean Energy Property Tax Credit is part of our state’s investment in a clean energy future,” said Chris Clark, executive director of the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA). “This incentive will accelerate Georgians’ adoption of energy efficient technologies and will help them to meet the Governor’s Energy Challenge.”

Most credits are capped at 35 percent of the cost of the property or a certain dollar amount established by the statute. There are different credit limits for residential and non-residential installations. The bill also provides tax credits for wood residuals delivered to qualified renewable biomass facilities. The Georgia Forestry Commission will establish the value of the biomass credits.

A total of $2.5 million in tax credits are available each calendar year from 2008 to 2012. The Department of Revenue will provide quarterly updates about the amount of available credits via its website – www.dor.ga.gov. GEFA will provide annual reports on the energy and economic benefits of the tax credit.

Trash talk can be taken as a good sign for the environment — at least when it’s between competitors on the trade-show floor at the annual Greenprints conference on sustainable building.

And all it took was a little prodding.

“Geothermal cannot get you a good return,” Jay Sampat, who manufacturers solar water-heating panels, declared when asked why someone should select solar over the competing technology of geothermal heat pumps.

Humbug, geothermal installer Kenny Libby shot back when told what Sampat said: “Those poor, poor solar guys.”

All of which makes Atlanta’s lead pied piper for green building somewhat happy. “That is great. … It’s the free market system,” the Southface Energy Institute’s Dennis Creech said last week during the conference at the Westin Peachtree Plaza. He notes that one in 10 new commercial projects now seeks eco-certification, when only a few years ago green building usually was considered just a “demonstration project.” “This is not just a movement. This is now a smart way of doing business.”

The meeting displayed loads of cool devices designed not only to save the world but also to get green-geeks like me excited. And it was truly startling to witness dozens of presentations from green builders who literally are changing Atlanta’s landscape daily.

Above: TOILET TALK: Denise Grimm (left) grabs a card from Andrea Paulinelli of Eco Transitions. Paulinelli was at Greenprints to extol her water-efficient commodes. Photo shot by: Joeff Davis

Georgia Power, the largest subsidiary of energy juggernaut Southern Company, announced that it’s accepting proposals from wind- and solar-power providers, which the company will in turn sell to its Georgia customers. Yippee! Zero-emission energy for we!

Well, possibly. According to a Georgia Power representative, there are few providers in the state, as Georgia has historically been a region not too suitable for solar- and wind-power generation. (The company did recently find, however, that wind power would be feasible along the coast.) You’ve got until October of next year to hook those pretty pinwheels in your garden up to a battery and make our world a clean and spiffy place. And yourself a buck. Click on the link above to get the 40-page proposal.
Has Georgia Power not thought about contacting the Manns? That 45-foot-tall eco-monster of a turbine they built in Grant Park might just pay off.