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Tesla has not always had an easy time breaking new ground in the electric roadster market. There have been plenty of hiccups along the way, and it doesn’t help that their first production vehicle costs well north of $100,000. That is, unless you live in Colorado.

The state best known for its snowy peak and undefeated football team (boooo Broncos) also offers a substantial tax break on all hybrid and electric vehicles. For the Tesla Roadster, that amounts to an amazing $42,000 off of the $109,000 car.

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If you live in Colorado and own a Prius, here’s a New Year’s Day gift for you: $6,000 off a plug-in hybrid conversion.

Earlier this year, Colorado passed House Bill 1331, “Incentives for Efficient Motor Vehicles,” which creates new tax credits of up to $6,000 for the purchase of, or conversion to, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

Background: plug-in hybrid and electric car retrofits.

The new credit will be a substantial discount off the average price of a plug-in conversion, which generally run around $10-14,000. On top of the Federal Tax Credit of 10% (up to $4,000), plug-in retrofits could start to make a lot of sense for some car owners.

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Treasury and Energy departments release long-awaited rules for grant money

When Congress was debating an extension of the renewable energy tax credits set to expire at the end of 2008, the loudest argument from the wind and solar industries was that letting the tax credits expire would have a deleterious affect on renewable energy development in the United States. And before the credits expired, Congress passed a short term extension of the renewable energy production and investment tax credits.

But then the credit markets froze. There was little to no money to borrow to get projects off the ground. At that point, the extension of the production tax credit was almost moot.

Recognizing this, the authors of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 addressed some of the problems created by the credit freeze by authorizing the Treasury Department to make immediate, direct payments to companies for projects—in lieu of tax credits—for an estimated 5,000 bio-mass, solar, wind and geothermal energy facilities.

And on Thursday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner together announced that they were ready to start doling out that cash, or at least how they would dole it out.

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The Quality Jobs Through Renewable Industries bill, or Senate Bill 1403, passed in the Arizona House and Senate last month.  With the goal of stimulating new investments in renewable energy projects, it creates new tax breaks and extends credits for solar energy firms in the state.

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In a Cliff’s Notes version of the myriad incentives, rebates, and tax incentives GREENandSAVE has created a Federal Tax Incentive Decoder and condensed the material to 11 bite sized pages. Best of all, this resource does not cost a dime and can be downloaded at: http://www.greenandsave.com/homecheckup/free_federal_tax_incentive_decoder

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Company officials at the UK-based Smith Electric Vehicles announced on Friday that they will begin manufacturing “The world’s largest battery-electric-powered truck” at a new plant in Kansas City, Missouri.

The battery-powered Newton will be the first vehicle to be produced at the new plant, but starting next year, the plant will manufacture an electric version of the new Transit Connect light-duty vehicle in collaboration with made by Ford Motor Co.

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Obama’s focus on reducing carbon emissions, investment in clean energy and creating green jobs to boost economic growth is clear.  As a result of the package:

• energy efficiency tax credits have been raised from 10% of cost to 30%;
• the maximum tax credit has been raised from $500 to $1500 on individual efficiency upgrades;
• more expensive upgrades, such as solar panels, solar water heaters, and geothermal pumps are not limited to their previous $1,500 maximum, and;
• the $200 tax credit cap on efficient windows has been removed (however, the standards are also more stringent).

All of this means that there has never been a better time, financially, to upgrade, insulate, and/or weatherize your buildings. These investments should pay for themselves relatively quickly, given the incentives and the energy savings, and provide long term savings in addition to good PR for your company.

For example, Jiminy Peak, a small ski resort in Massachusetts, put in a wind turbine at their resort. With an up-front cost of roughly $4M and energy savings of $450,000 per year, the turbine will pay for itself in less than ten years and provide reliable electricity for many years after. Jiminy Peak has protected itself from fluctuations in energy costs and power outages, and meanwhile given itself a nice PR victory.

The Small Business Association also has a guaranteed loan program for construction and renovation including Energy Star appliances and upgrades. The 7a Loan Guaranty Program has a high degree of flexibility in what you are able to use the money for, including energy efficiency, retrofitting, and new Energy Star upgrades.

>>See also: Obama First to Enforce 34-Year-Old Energy Efficiency Rules

Scott Cooney is the author of Build a Green Small Business:  Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-Hill), and hopes that the green economy will someday just be referred to as…the economy.

Photo credit:  BrentDanley on Flickr Creative Commons

As part of the Senate’s proposed stimulus plan, tax credits of up to $7500 have been included for plug-in electric vehicles!  The proposal signifies the Senate is willing to work with President Obama to wean the United States off its dependency on foreign oil. 

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/01/28/senate-proposes-7500-tax-credit-on-plug-in-electric-hybrid-vehicles/feed/ http://cleantechnica.com/2009/01/28/mma-renewable-ventures-raised-nearly-200m-last-year-and-spent-it/ http://cleantechnica.com/2009/01/28/mma-renewable-ventures-raised-nearly-200m-last-year-and-spent-it/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:39:32 +0000 Jennifer Kho http://cleantechnica.com/2009/01/28/mma-renewable-ventures-raised-nearly-200m-last-year-and-spent-it/

MMA Renewable Ventures closed nearly $200 million in its third fund, the solar financer and developer said Tuesday.

The company, which finances and develops solar installations, raised the money last year and already spent the cash to create 20.6 megawatts of new solar-power projects throughout the United States. Those projects included a 2-megawatt system at the Denver International Airport, as well as installations for Macy’s Inc., Gap Inc., Florida Power & Light Co. and Lowe’s.

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]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2009/01/28/mma-renewable-ventures-raised-nearly-200m-last-year-and-spent-it/feed/ http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/01/28/senate-stimulus-tax-plan-offers-incentives-for-plug-in-electric-cars/ http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/01/28/senate-stimulus-tax-plan-offers-incentives-for-plug-in-electric-cars/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:46:23 +0000 Reenita Malhotra http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/01/28/senate-stimulus-tax-plan-offers-incentives-for-plug-in-electric-cars/

Energy tax provisions slated for the massive economic stimulus bill include expanded incentives for plug-in electric vehicles.

Now that’s seriously good news even though gas prices are the lowest they’ve been in a long time.

The Senate unveiled yesterday that they would mark up the $272 billion tax measure as they are a promising way to help curb reliance on oil imports by effectively allowing electric power to substitute for oil-based transportation fuels.  The energy provisions total more than $30 billion over the course of a decade.

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• Extending the eligibility period for the credit to December 31, 2009.
• Increasing the credit amount to 10 percent of the home price capped at 3.5 percent of FHA loan limits.
• “Monetizing” the credit so it is available at time of closing
• Allowing the credit to be used in conjunction with mortgages financed by state or local bonds.

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Happy New Year!

Here we are officially at the start of what promises to be a year of taking steps towards the sustainable lifestyle that will positively impact us over the long term. What better time than now to think about how you can plan your green building efforts over the course of this year.

As always, the writers of Green Building Elements are here to guide you with all of the wonderful green resources that we here about everyday.

If you have not already read 2009 Green Home Resolutions, I suggest that you do with further ado. Joel offers some great tips for simple, inexpensive (or free) ways to green your life starting today. And Dawn’s post about Tax Credits available in 2009 provides a guideline of the energy efficiency tax credits included in last year’s economic bailout.

Beyond this, here are my favorite Green Building resources that our writers have written about in the last year:

1. New Green Building 101 E-book

Keith wrote a great post about Green Building 101: A Basic Guide to Building and Remodeling Sustainably. Green Building 101 makes for an easy intro for anyone not familiar with the green building process. Authored by our very own Dawn Killough, the book is broken down into categories such as energy efficiency, building materials, and construction procedures. Anyone familiar with the LEED system or Green Point Rated certification programs will be knowledgeable with these topics.

Click here for the full story.

2. AIA Launches “GreenStep” Video Series

Dawn also told us about a wonderful online video series launched by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The series presents short episodes on several green building topics.  It is meant for those planning new buildings or the renovation of existing buildings, and shows how architects can help clients address their green concerns.

Click here for the full story.

3. Off the Grid Homes - Case Studies for Sustainable Living

Philip reviewed a wonderful book entitled Off the Grid Homes written by architect Lori Ryker. The book is less of a manual for systems to be used in off the grid homes (though it does include good information about the systems and strategies that are used in sustainable off the grid living) and more of a showcase of state of the art homes at the intersection of appealing architecture and high sustainability.

Click here for the full story.

4. Green Building Resource Guide

Finally, for the architects and designers out there, don’t miss the Green Building Resource Guide, a database of over 600 green building materials and products selected specifically for their usefulness to the design and building professions.  The Green Building Resource Guide is designed around four user interfaces familiar to architects: Site Plan, Elevation, Floor Plan, and Section.

Here is a brief run-down of the credits available in 2009:

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Built on unique, patented technology, the SWIFT Wind generates electricity by harnessing the power of the wind providing a clean energy source for domestic, community and industrial use. Optimally sited, this turbine will produce approximately 2000 kWh of electricity per year. One of the quietest wind systems available, it generates less than 35 decibels of noise at all wind speeds

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The recent $700 billion bailout package has extended tax credits to wind and solar energy companies. However since mostly all renewable energy projects depend upon project financing, it is suspected that only large utilities will actually benefit from the tax credits. However, companies such as Carbon Sciences, Inc. (CABN) are proving otherwise.

Transforming CO2 to Fuel

Carbon Sciences, the developer of a breakthrough technology to transform harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) into high value, earth-friendly products such as precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) is now developing a breakthrough technology to transform CO2 into the basic fuel building blocks required to produce gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and other portable fuels.

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The world economy might be in recession, however, carbon emissions are at an all time high. According to a new analysis by the nonprofit and nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) of data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) U.S. power plant CO2 emissions jumped 2.9 percent in 2007, the biggest single-year increase since 1998. More than ever, companies need to commit to taking steps against global warming.

The $700 billion bailout package recently issued by the U.S. government favors supply-side economics. The bailout package included tax credits for renewable energy industries most notably for wind and solar energy manufacturers. The general view is however that larger utilities will benefit as opposed to smaller renewable energy players that remain dependent upon project financing.

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So how far apart are the two contenders when it comes to energy?

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Carbon Sciences has recently developed CO2-to-Carbonate technology , an industrial platform for transforming CO2 emissions into high value carbonate products such as precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC), a carbon captured product that replaces wood and clay in the paper industry. Carbon Sciences’ clean technology process combines CO2 with industrial waste minerals and transforms them into PCC.

The multi-billion dollar global market for PCC is projected to grow to 10 million tons by 2010. Carbon Sciences attributes this growth to increased worldwide paper consumption and construction. The company has been in discussion with various paper manufacturers to test the use of PCC. An in-house plant will test and optimize the development of this highly valued carbonate product

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