Cash incentives for choosing green energy

- Being sensitive to the environment is all well and good, but there can be another good reason to use green energy: cash in your pocket.

Government agencies and utilities offer a variety of financial incentives to homeowners and businesses that incorporate renewable energy and energy-efficient features when building, remodeling or buying appliances.

To see what's available, visit the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, a website produced by the North Carolina Solar Center.

To find incentives in California, select the state from the map on the home page. Subsequent pages outline tax credits, grants, loans, rebates, bond programs, property tax exemptions and other rewards.

Users can search for incentives by type of technology, incentive type and eligible sector (residential, commercial, governmental, nonprofit). Also on the site are contractor license requirements and other state and local regulations.