When they get their midyear tax bills, some New Ipswich residents like Craig Dudley and Matt Oliveira may be able to pay a little bit less.
After the passage of an article at the 2017 Town Meeting, New Ipswich residents for the first time are eligible for a solar energy exemption.
Article 22 of the 2017 town warrant provides for an optional exemption of up to $25,000 from the property’s assessed value for solar panels and associated equipment .
At New Ipswich’s 2016 municipal tax rate of $5.80 per $1,000, that could save qualifying taxpayers as much as $145 per year.
Dudley’s system, which he said cost about $33,000 but he does not think has been assessed, could save him the maximum.
Oliveira, the resident who created and rallied support for the petition warrant article, said there are at least 26 solar energy systems in New Ipswich, with more coming.
“I’ve had some people asking me about it,” he said. “And the homebuilders in town have seen some new ones go in, so that’s steps in the right direction.”
Dudley has one of the largest residential systems in town at his Poor Farm Road and Robins Road property. Still, he has problems with the $25,000 cap.
“I think the cap is crazy,” he said. “Mine might be an outlier in New Ipswich, but this cap will prevent more people from putting in photovoltaic panels greater than the cap and selling energy back to Eversource.”
Photovoltaic panels are the part of a solar energy system that collects energy from sunlight. That energy is converted from direct current to usable alternating current electricity. What is needed is used at the residence, and what is not used is sent into the distribution grid and used on other properties.
“Because we’re generating excess electricity from our panels and we’re sending it back to Eversource, Eversource doesn’t have to go buy it from a generation facility,” Dudley said.
Dudley said he spent about $33,000 on his 54-panel system, which went live in early 2016. He expects the assessment to exceed the cap.
As of February’s deliberative session, when the cap was debated, 11 New Ipswich residential solar arrays had been assessed. Ten of them were under $25,000.
James Coffey, a member of the New Ipswich board of assessors, thinks favors the cap and wrote the amendment that created it.
“There needs to be some sort of limit so we don’t wind up with a solar farm out there that’s not being taxed, and at $25,000 it’s going to cover most folks,” he said.
Coffey sees complications in exempting solar energy systems for a number of reasons, including that it’s not known how they might depreciate in value, and that other energy-friendly acts, like installing cost-saving lightbulbs, are not rewarded by the government.
In Dudley’s mind, it should be as easy as towns allowing residents to do the practice.
“If the town did not assess photovoltaic panels, then it’s net zero,” he said. “No additional service, no additional tax revenue, no tax increase.”
Coffey, who is also the town administrator in Stoddard, said it is not so simple, because town assessments play into collective tax pool rates, like for school districts and, for New Ipswich, Hillsborough County.
“If there are towns that don’t assess them, they’re lowering their total assessment and their portion of the county tax revenue,” Coffey said. “If you want to do the math, and this has nothing to do with being for or against solar, I like solar, but I wouldn’t do it that way.”
New Ipswich residents’ county tax rate is $1.24. As of January 2017, 10 Hillsborough County towns – Brookline, Deering, Francestown, Greenfield, Goffstown, Mason, Mont Vernon, New Boston, Temple, Weare – have total solar exemptions. Six more – Amherst, Bedford, Hollis, Milford, Nashua, Pelham – have partial exemptions, like New Ipswich’s.
Jaffrey also has a full exemption, and Dublin and Rindge have caps.
Applications for the exemption were due to the town of New Ipswich by April 15. Oliveira said that he and a group of other residents submitted theirs right after the March 16 vote. Coffey said 23 exemption applications were accepted for this year, and the assessors already have three that will take effect in 2018. Property is taxed as it was on April 1 of a given year, and anything attached to the home or land is eligible for assessment.
Tax Collector Jessica Olson said bills were sent out in the past week, and are due July 3, a Monday.
“We’re glad to have gotten something through for our effort,” Oliveira said. “For right now, it’s just about letting people know there’s this exemption, and getting more solar in town.”