ORS Chapter 469b — Energy Incentives; Tax

ORS 469b.130. (1) Alternative fuel vehicle means a vehicle as defined by the Director of the State Department of Energy by rule that is used primarily in connection with the conduct of a trade or business and that is manufactured or modified to use an alternative fuel, including but not limited to electricity, ethanol, methanol, gasohol and propane or natural gas, regardless of energy consumption savings. (2) Car sharing facility means the expenses of operating a car sharing program, including but not limited to the fair market value of parking spaces used to store the fleet of cars available for a car sharing program, but does not include the costs of the fleet of cars. (3) Car sharing program means a program in which drivers pay to become members in order to have joint access to a fleet of cars from a common parking area on an hourly basis. Car sharing program does not include operations conducted by car rental agencies. (4) Cost means the capital costs and expenses necessarily incurred in the erection, construction, installation and acquisition of a facility, including site development costs and expenses for a sustainable building practices facility. (5) Energy facility means any capital investment for which the first year energy savings yields a simple payback period of greater than one year. An energy facility includes: (a) Any land, structure, building, installation, excavation, machinery, equipment or device, or any addition to, reconstruction of or improvement of, land or an existing structure, building, installation, excavation, machinery, equipment or device necessarily erected, constructed, installed or acquired by any person in connection with the conduct of a trade or business and actually used in the processing or utilization of renewable energy resources to: (A) Replace a substantial part or all of an existing use of electricity, petroleum or natural gas; (B) Provide the initial use of energy where electricity, petroleum or natural gas would have been used; (C) Generate electricity to replace an existing source of electricity or to provide a new source of electricity for sale by or use in the trade or business; (D) Perform a process that obtains energy resources from material that would otherwise be solid waste as defined in ORS 459.005; or (E) Manufacture or distribute alternative fuels, including but not limited to electricity, ethanol, methanol, gasohol or biodiesel. (b) Any acquisition of, addition to, reconstruction of or improvement of land or an existing structure, building, installation, excavation, machinery, equipment or device necessarily erected, constructed, installed or acquired by any person in connection with the conduct of a trade or business in order to substantially reduce the consumption of purchased energy. (c) A necessary feature of a new commercial building or multiple unit dwelling, as dwelling is defined by ORS 469B.100, that causes that building or dwelling to exceed an energy performance standard in the state building code. (d) The replacement of an electric motor with another electric motor that substantially reduces the consumption of electricity. (6) Facility means an energy facility, recycling facility, transportation facility, car sharing facility, sustainable building practices facility, alternative fuel vehicle or facilities necessary to operate alternative fuel vehicles, including but not limited to an alternative fuel vehicle refueling station, a high-efficiency combined heat and power facility, a high-performance home or a homebuilder-installed renewable energy system. (7) High-efficiency combined heat and power facility means a device or equipment that simultaneously produces heat and electricity from a single source of fuel and that meets the criteria established for a high-efficiency combined heat and power facility under ORS 469B.139. (8) High-performance home means a new single-family dwelling that: (a) Is designed and constructed to reduce net purchased energy through use of both energy efficiency and on-site renewable energy resources; and (b) Meets the criteria established for a high-performance home under ORS 469B.139. (9) Homebuilder-installed renewable energy system means a renewable energy resource system that: (a) Meets the criteria established for a renewable energy resource system under ORS