I thought there are almost no incentives for DIY. Any incentives usually come packaged with go through licensed contractors, who usually charge 10X more than DIY. This is what I've observed with most federal, state, city, utility incentives.
Ask ChatGPT to find the specific statues for federal and state, and check your local code. Most areas allow a homeowner to do electrical and building construction themselves, as long as they pull permits and get inspections. The homeowner basically acts as their own contractor. Solar is no exception; it's just building + electrical work, after all.
I will be getting 30% off from Federal for my solar+battery storage. From NY State, I get a personal income tax credit of 25% on solar (up to $5K), and I pay no state sales tax on solar or batteries. And NY has a 15-year property tax exemption for the whole solar generation setup of property tax.
There are additional credits in my state from NYSERDA that apply only to qualifying contractors, and I'm not a qualifying contractor, so I don't get those extra savings. But I don't need them, because I'm not paying anybody to do the work!
All this applies to renters as well, btw, you just need written permission from the landlord/homeowner.
