Tax credits jolt green energy upgrades for Las Vegas homeowners

When William Huggins heard that Congress was considering the Inflation Reduction Act, he sent emails and signed petitions in support. Today, he’s among the first Las Vegas homeowners to reap the economic benefits.

Soon, he’ll get back thousands in tax credits for purchasing his electric Tesla Model Y and installing a solar-powered skylight. It’s the least he can do to combat climate change in one of the fastest-warming cities in the country, Huggins said.

“We have two children, and that’s what this is all about,” Huggins said from his front porch in Silverado Ranch.

Huggins welcomed U.S. Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., and a number of Las Vegas conservation leaders into his home on Tuesday — one of several ribbon-cutting ceremonies held across the country this month to show how homeowners are taking advantage of the tax incentives of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Two years have passed since Lee and her Democratic colleagues voted to pass the act, which has been called the biggest investment in reducing carbon emissions in world history. Vice President Kamala Harris cast the deciding vote needed to push the legislation through the Senate.

Tax credits award big individual savings

Huggins has received a $7,500 tax credit for his electric vehicle. The solar tubes, which capture sunlight from the roof and bring it to his indoor skylight, cost $2,600 to install, and he’ll benefit from a 30 percent, or $780 rebate.

And he’s not alone. More than 41,000 Nevada families saved $151 million on clean energy investments in 2023 with Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury.

The tax credits are popular, too. A recent University of Maryland poll found that more than half of both Republicans and Democrats in Nevada support the credits for EVs and EV charging stations.

Giving the middle class the financial freedom to invest in home projects such as solar energy was a major reason why Lee cast her vote for the act, she said.

“So many people are not sitting on the type of cash that you need to make those investments,” Lee said. “And that’s what was important about the Inflation Reduction Act.”

Though Republicans have long criticized the act, tax credits for energy projects have garnered some bipartisan support.

The sole Nevada representative who voted against the act, U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei, signed onto a letter this month with other Republicans, asking Speaker Mike Johnson to keep in mind “the importance of a healthy and thriving domestic energy sector” when considering calls to repeal the act in full.

When he cast his vote, Amodei told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, he found the provisions related to hiring new IRS agents and imposing a minimum tax on corporations to be the least effective parts.

But the letter contends that tax credits for clean energy remain effective.

“Prematurely repealing energy tax credits, particularly those which were used to justify investments that already broke ground, would undermine private investments and stop development that is already ongoing,” the Republican lawmakers wrote. “A full repeal would create a worst-case scenario.”

How to find your next home upgrade

Glenn Georgens, owner of the company that installed Huggins’ solar tubes, said he’s been putting them in people’s homes in Las Vegas since 1997. Sun Cat Skylights has worked on installing more than 32,000 solar tubes, he said.

Solar tubes are just one energy solution people should be considering for their homes, Georgens said.

Rewiring America, a nonprofit focused on the green energy transition, offers a Nevada-specific calculator to visualize the savings that different energy efficiency improvements could generate.

In her remarks on Tuesday, Lee said rooftop solar can save homeowners an average of $1,500 a year. Solar for All, Nevada’s program that will use federal funds to offset home solar costs, got the go-ahead last week from the Environmental Protection Agency to begin using its $156 million grant.

“It’s not one thing that’s going to turn around this climate problem,” said Georgens, the solar tube company owner. “It’s everyone doing their part.”

Contact Alan Halaly on ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.