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North Dakota allows property owners to grant an easement that ensures adequate exposure of a wind-energy system to the wind. The easement runs with the land benefited and burdened, and terminates upon the conditions stated in the easement. The statutes authorizing the creation of wind easements include several provisions to protect property owners. For example, a wind easement may not make the property owner liable for any property tax associated with the wind-energy system or other equipment related to wind-energy generation.

In addition to home energy audits, Xcel Energy offers rebates to North Dakota residential customers for the purchase of energy efficient heating and water heating technologies. Xcel offers rebates to homeowners for natural gas furnaces and boilers and natural gas water heaters. Through the Energy Audit offering, residents can receive audits at 70% less than market value to help them determine the right energy-savings improvements for their homes. Contact Xcel for more information on this program.

Otter Tail Power Company's Dollar Smart Financing Program offers $150 - $40,000 loans to its residential and business customers. Customers who have satisfactory 12-month payment histories with Otter Tail or another utility may use the 8.5% interest rate loan to finance purchases of new electric technologies.

Otter Tail Power Company offers incentives to all of its customers to install energy efficient equipment in their homes or facilities. Rebates are available for high-efficiency electric heating technologies such as demand control equipment, hot water heaters and thermal storage technologies. Residential customers who install a Residential Demand Control unit on the RDC rate (Rate 241) are eligible for a $300 rebate. Receipts must be turned in with the program application in order to qualify for the rebate.

North Dakota's net-metering policy, adopted in 1991 by the state Public Service Commission (PSC), applies to renewable-energy systems and combined heat and power (CHP) systems up to 100 kilowatts (kW) in capacity.** Net metering is available to all customers of investor-owned electric utilities; it is not available to customers of municipal utilities or electric cooperatives. There is no specified statewide limit on the aggregate capacity of all net-metered systems.

Northern Plains Electric Cooperative is a member-owned electric cooperative that serves customers in east-central North Dakota. This EMC offers a low-interest loan program residential and commercial customers that wish to install energy efficient electric space conditioning systems, electric water heaters, and pursue weatherization improvements. Loans of up to $5,000 are available for qualified energy saving programs; loans must be repaid in seven years and are loaned at a 5% rate.

In 2001, North Dakota established property tax reductions for commercial wind turbines constructed before 2011. Originally, the law reduced the taxable value of centrally-assessed* wind turbines with a capacity of 100 kilowatts (kW) or greater from 10% to 3% of assessed value, resulting in a property tax savings of 70%. This law has since been amended, resulting in the establishment of slightly different tax valuation procedures for some installations.

North Dakota offers an income tax credit to individuals, estates and trusts for the cost of acquiring and installing a geothermal energy system in a building or on property owned or leased by the taxpayer in North Dakota. For systems installed after December 31, 2008, and before January 1, 2015, the credit is equal to 3% per year for five years of the actual cost of acquisition and installation of the system. Any excess may be used as a credit carryover to each of the 10 succeeding taxable years.

''Much of the information presented in this summary is drawn from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Building Energy Codes Program and the Building Codes Assistance Project (BCAP). For more detailed information about building energy codes, visit the [http://www.energycodes.gov/states/ DOE] and [http://bcap-ocean.org/ BCAP] websites.''

Bright Energy Solutions offers energy efficiency cash incentive programs to [http://dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=ND21F&re=1&ee=1 residential] and business customers of municipal utilities that are members of Missouri River Energy Services. In North Dakota, this includes: