Note: On November 5, 2010, Ohio announced suspension of all new grants for residential solar electric (PV), wind and solar thermal systems. Grants have also been suspended for businesses, schools, institutions, farms, local government entities, and other non-residential systems. The following information details the Ohio Residential grant program prior to this suspension.
The Ohio Dept. of Development, Energy Office once again provides Advanced Energy Fund grants for residential systems under NOFA #09-02, NOFA #09-03, and NOFA #09-04. The grants are available for home owners to install a renewable energy system on their primary residence. These NOFAs were announced in January 2009. These NOFAs replaced NOFA 07-03. There are grants available for Solar Electric (photovoltaic), Solar Thermal, and Wind systems. In order to qualify for a grant you must be in an Investor Owned Utility service area. That is your utility company must be one of the FirstEnergy companies (CEI, Toledo Edison, or Ohio Edison), one of the AEP companies, Duke Power, or Dayton Power & Light. If your utility company is a municipal or rural co-op utility you are not eligible for an Advanced Energy Fund grant.
Grants are awarded based on system size. Systems must be at least 2 kW to qualify. Size is determined by adding up the STC watts rating for all the solar PV modules in the system. The grant provides $3.00 per watt. The maximum grant for Residential PV systems is $25,000, but no more than 50% of system cost. Dovetail now has a Residential Solar Financing Program to enable homeowners to acquire a system with minimal up-front payment. See Residential Financing for details.