State Offers Incentives to Businesses and Residents to Invest in Job-Creating Renewable Energy Project
With the state’s help, companies across Ohio are developing and installing advanced energy technologies to reduce carbon emissions, create jobs and meet growing global demand. The state is also offering financial incentives to Ohio’s workplaces and households to install renewable energy systems and improve energy efficiency.
The Melink company in southeastern Ohio installed solar panels on the roof of its facility with the help of a grant from the Ohio Energy Office’s Commercial Renewable Energy Program.
Ohio is a diverse state with different regional economies and assets, including a broad portfolio of technologies and globally competitive products and services. We are applying our historical strengths, new technologies and research capabilities to become a world leader in advanced energy technology development, manufacturing and deployment.
Working with Gov. Ted Strickland and state leadership, the Ohio Department of Development has laid the foundation to create thousands of new, good-paying jobs for Ohioans in growing industries of the future. The Ohio Bipartisan Job Stimulus Plan calls for investing in targeted industries such as advanced energy, infrastructure, logistics and distribution, and bioscience and bioproducts to create new jobs and ensure future economic prosperity. Advanced energy technologies hold the potential for thousands of new jobs in the state, and we are committed to supporting technology-based economic development programs.
Within our Ohio Bipartisan Job Stimulus Plan, our Advanced Energy Initiative devotes $150 million to be invested into making Ohio a powerhouse of renewable and advanced energy production. Our strengths in manufacturing and transportation make Ohio an ideal location for advanced and renewable energy industries. For example, Ohio is one of the largest producers of component parts for the wind industry. By retooling and retrofitting our state’s existing manufacturing base, we reinforce our current strengths in an array of industry sectors, including information technology, logistics and distribution.
Our Advanced Energy Portfolio Standard, a component of the energy law signed by Governor Strickland in May 2008, requires investor-owned electric utilities to supply 25 percent of their retail sales from advanced energy sources, with at least 12.5 percent from renewable energy by 2025. The standard will expand the market for emerging industries in our state, and strengthen Ohio’s economy to meet current and future global demand for components, technologies and services of alternative energy solutions.
The Ohio Energy Office, working with partners around the state, is identifying hundreds of Ohio companies that are already supplying, or are candidates for retooling to supply, key components to wind and solar industries, including bearings, gears, hydraulics, machinery and power electronics.
Beyond these development activities, the Energy Office offers many financial incentives to businesses and residents for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects at work and home. Commercial and industrial businesses that implement solar electric, wind electric and solar thermal systems may be eligible to receive up to $200,000 of funding through the Commercial Renewable Energy Program. The program assists tax-exempt entities such as schools and government agencies that take on renewable energy projects.
Our solar thermal and wind energy incentives help Ohioans lead the way to a renewable energy future. The newly released Solar Thermal Energy Incentives fund solar thermal energy projects on both new construction and existing buildings with added incentives for energy efficient affordable residential housing. Our Residential Wind Energy Incentive Program also gives awards of up to $25,000 to install wind turbines. Through targeted investments and collaboration among our state agencies, businesses and workforce, these programs are further proof that we’re renewing and reinvesting in Ohio’s energy future.
The greatest opportunities for economic growth lie in blending our inventive past with the innovative promises and new technologies of the future. Through our programs, local businesses and communities are encouraged to develop and deploy these advanced energy technologies.
For more information on our Energy Office’s programs, visit www.energy.development.ohio.gov.
For a complete overview of our Advanced Energy component of Ohio’s Job Stimulus Program, visit www.ohioairquality.org/advanced_energy_program.