Beautiful beaches, coffee milk, and Del’s lemonade: these are just a few of the things that make Rhode Island a great place to be. It also happens to be a great place to install an energy storage system thanks in part to utility incentives and federal tax credits.
The best way to compare your solar options and save money at the same time is by registering on the EnergySage Marketplace. When you compare quotes for solar panels on EnergySage's competitive solar marketplace, you can expect to see prices up to 20% lower than working with a single solar company. Read our updated article on the cost of solar panels to compare solar costs across states and by panel brand.
What storage incentives are available in Rhode Island?
As of September 2020, Rhode Island does not have any state-specific energy storage incentives. However, RI Energy offers an advantageous incentive opportunity for its customers installing batteries in the Ocean State:
ConnectedSolutions program
The ConnectedSolutions Program is a demand response program that pays you an annual incentive in exchange for allowing RI Energy to access and use electricity you store in your battery during times of peak energy demand.
In RI, you can receive $400 per kW during the summer events (i.e. times when they pull electricity from the battery). You don’t have to worry about RI Energy constantly draining your battery of energy: program participants experience a maximum of 60 events during a single summer season, and each event can last no longer than 3 hours.
Your overall incentive benefit will depend on the number of events per year and how much power your solar battery can provide, but according to RI Energy, homeowners participating in the program can expect to earn around $1,500 a year.
Rhode Island tax benefits for energy storage
Good news – while there are no state tax incentives available for energy storage in RI, homeowners installing a solar-plus-storage system can take advantage of the federal investment tax credit (ITC).
The federal investment tax credit (ITC)
With the federal investment tax credit (ITC), you can claim up to 30 percent of the cost of your solar battery as a credit towards your federal taxes. For most homeowners, the ITC can help decrease the cost of a battery by an additional $3,000 to $4,000.
Importantly, standalone storage is not currently eligible for this credit – but it will be starting in 2023 thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act! To claim this incentive for the remainder of 2022, you need to charge your battery with an on-site renewable energy source (like rooftop solar). If you have a residential solar panel system and you charge your battery with electricity from the grid, you cannot take advantage of this credit right now.
