Although green energy is virtually inexhaustible and free, the technology for harnessing it does cost money. Funds are needed for research, development and deployment of green energy technology. The good news is that more and more financial support is being made available because of growing awareness of the depletion of fossil fuel reserves as well as the environmental impact of fossil fuels.
Most of the green energy grants, as this support is commonly known, come from government and energy suppliers.
Green energy grants are available to individual taxpayers as tax credits or grants. In the United States tax credits are of three kinds: business energy investment tax credit (ITC) , renewable electricity production tax credit (PTC) and the residential renewable energy tax credit. Only legally defined taxpaying entities may avail of these credits. Among the provisions related to green energy are:
- Green solar energy. The grant is for 30% of the basis of property such as equipment for generating power from solar energy; equipment for heating, cooling or supplying hot water; and equipment for supplying solar process heat. Daylighting is not eligible for green energy grants but use of optical fibers to convey sunlight to the inside of buildings is eligible. Other passive solar technologies are also not eligible for this grant.
- Small Wind Turbines. The grant pays for 30% of small wind property including wind turbines with maximum generating capacity of 100 kW.
- Geothermal. The grant is for 30% of geothermal energy facilities and 10% of the property related to geothermal heat pumps.
In the United Kingdom and Scotland, the government grant will also pay to support improvement of heating efficiency of households. In order to encourage home-owners to install small generation technologies they increased funding (up to 50% in the UK, 30% in Scotland) of the installation of solar photovoltaic panels, residential wind turbines, solar thermal hot water and ground source heat pumps (geothermal energy), to cite only green energy technology. To supplement this program, the government also tasked energy suppliers since 2002 to promote energy efficiency by bringing down the costs of installation of conservation and renewable energy systems.
Arguments Against Green Energy Grants
Some people argue against subsidies for green energy. They claim that green energy is anything but does cost money. They also assert that efforts to promote green energy has led to significant expenses and unexpected environmental effects. To support their assertions, they cite data which appears to indicate that green energy, in particular, wind energy and green solar energy cost twice as much as the most economical fossil-fuel . Solar and wind are uncompetitive partly because of their erratic nature.
Apart from the economic non-competitiveness of green energy, some real environmental concerns have also been cited. For instance, one negative and unforeseen impact of wind turbines is avian mortality. In the United States, solar power systems are being blamed for overdevelopment of deserts. In addition, wind and solar power installations are being cited for their demand for large land spaces. Even geothermal is held accountable for its emissions of toxic gases from the earth.
Critics in the United States believe that because of green energy, there will be oversupply of power in some regions that eventually may lead to higher power rates. In the face of this, they point out that advances have been made in making fossil fuels more economical and environment friendly so as to make further support for green energy unjustifiable.
Author Resource:-
Dave May is an expert at Green Energy GT.com, when it comes to solar power systems and wind energy.To find out everything about solar water pumps, solar lighting, green energy grants etc., visit his website at Green Energy GT .com.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.articlecorp.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
