Growing Tax Breaks from the Ground to the Sky: Organic Gardens and Solar Panels

Green homeowners already know the importance of taking personal responsibility for what they and their family consume. Starting and maintaining organic gardens allows them to know exactly what they are eating, with no pesticides or chemicals used, and to reduce their carbon footprint by not buying goods transported to stores over long distances. Growing fruits and vegetables allows for sustainability, and is often just plain fun.

However, for many such home gardeners, the lack of government incentives for organic planting has been frustrating. There is really very little in the way of tax breaks or deductions for those who go the extra mile to make the world just a little bit more environmentally-friendly for not just their immediate family but for the earth as a whole. Green gardening and organic planting are costly and time intensive, and have had little in the way of monetary rewards from our nation’s institutions.

That is until 2009, when the Obama administration began giving out tax breaks for people who bought and installed solar panels for existing homes. These taxpayers received a deduction of 30% of whatever they paid, capped at $2000. As 2010 recently concluded, the tax breaks ended.

But they were renewed for 2011, and made even better than ever. Both homes existing and being constructed can receive the 30% deduction, and now, there is no cap, so taxpayers will receive a 30% deduction on whatever they spent, no matter how high.

There has never been a better time to install solar panels and go green, and so organic gardeners have even more incentive to continue their efforts to live and eat better. Solar panels are an excellent way to heat a greenhouse so that planters may maintain their gardens year-round without using energy, thus defeating the purposes of their sustainability goals.

Even just a relatively few panels placed on the roof can easily heat a greenhouse, allowing gardeners to enjoy fruits and vegetables year-round, thus continuing to reduce their carbon footprints and eat organically even in the winter time. The electronics in a solar panels in fact function better in cold weather, and the panels are able to absorb some sunlight in overcast conditions and even at night from the moon, so do not need to be in a hot and sunny climate all year.

The benefits of solar panels have been expounded on much before, but now, there is monetary incentive from the government to purchase and install them on a greenhouse roof, and that incentive is better than it was before. Not only can organic gardeners control what they consume, they can also be responsible for their finances by receiving a nice tax deduction. Plus, over time (usually 8-10 years), the panels will eventually pay for themselves in what they save on a would-be electric bill.

Go green, save green, and contribute to a greener society by using solar panels to heat new and existing greenhouses.

Edward Stern is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on accredited online universities for Guide to Online Schools.