COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 608
(By Senators Unger, Stollings, Chafin and Kessler)
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[Originating in the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure; reported March 19, 2009.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §11-13Z-1, §11-13Z-2,
§11-13Z-3 and §11-13Z-4, all relating to creating a tax credit
for certain solar energy systems; providing for restrictions
of use; requiring public electric utilities to credit
customers for excess electricity generated; and requiring Tax
Commissioner to promulgate rules for claiming and applying tax
credit.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new article, designated §11-13Z-1, §11-13Z-2,
§11-13Z-3 and §11-13Z-4, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 13Z. RESIDENTIAL SOLAR ENERGY TAX CREDIT.
§11-13Z-1. Amount of credit.
Any person who installs a solar energy system on property
owned by the taxpayer and used as a residence after July 1, 2009 shall qualify for a state personal income tax credit of thirty
percent of the cost to purchase and install the system up to a
maximum amount of $2,000.
§11-13Z-2. Restrictions.
In order to receive the credit for a solar energy system on
residential property, the system must use solar energy to generate
electricity, to heat or cool a structure or provide hot water for
use in the structure or to provide solar process heat: Provided,
That this does not include a swimming pool, hot tub or any other
energy storage medium that has a function other than storage and
must derive at least fifty percent of its energy to heat or cool
from the sun.
§11-13Z-3. Net-metering; credit by public electric utilities for
excess electricity generated.
If the solar energy system generates electricity in excess of
the monthly retail consumption of electricity of the customer's
residence, public electric utilities shall allow the customer owner
an offset for the electricity generated from the solar energy
system on the customer's side of the meter connected to the
residence. If the customer generates electricity in excess of that
customers's monthly consumption, all excess energy expressed in
kilowatt-hours shall be carried forward from month to month and
credited against the person's energy consumption, expressed in
kilowatt-hours, in subsequent months, at the rate of one and
one-half cents a kilowatt hour for the excess electricity generated by the customer's solar energy system and transmitted to the
electric utility grid. Public electric utilities shall provide net
metering service at nondiscriminating rates and allow the residence
owner to generate electricity subject to net metering up to
twenty-five kilowatts.
§11-13Z-4. Carryover credit allowed; Tax Commissioner to
promulgate rules.
If the credit earned in the year the solar energy system is
installed exceeds the allowable tax credit amount the residential
property owner may claim for that taxable year, the excess credit
may be carried over for the next taxable year. If the amount of
the credit exceeds the taxpayer's liability for the taxable year,
the amount which exceeds the tax liability may be carried over and
applied as a credit against the tax liability of the taxpayer
pursuant to the provisions of article twenty-one of this chapter to
each of the next taxable years unless sooner used.
The State Tax Commissioner shall promulgate legislative rules
pursuant to the provisions of chapter twenty-nine-a of this code
regarding the applicability, method of claiming of the credit
recapture of the credit and documentation necessary to claim the
credit allowed by this article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to give credit for energy
savings when a solar energy system is installed on a residential
property.
§11-13Z-1, §11-13Z-2, §11-13Z-3 and §11-13Z-4 are new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.