105-129.15. Definitions.

The following definitions apply in this Article:

(1) Business property. - Tangible personal property that is used by the taxpayer in connection with a business or for the production of income and is capitalized by the taxpayer for tax purposes under the Code. The term does not include, however, a luxury passenger automobile taxable under section 4001 of the Code or a watercraft used principally for entertainment and pleasure outings for which no admission is charged.

(2) Cost. - In the case of property owned by the taxpayer, cost is determined pursuant to regulations adopted under section 1012 of the Code, subject to the limitation on cost provided in section 179 of the Code. In the case of property the taxpayer leases from another, cost is value as determined pursuant to G.S. 105-130.4(j)(2), unless the property is renewable energy property for which the taxpayer claims either a federal energy credit under section 48 of the Code or a federal grant in lieu of that credit and makes a lease pass-through election under the Code. In this circumstance, the cost of the leased renewable energy property is the cost determined under the Code.

(3) Recodified as 105-129.15(5).

(4) Hydroelectric generator. - A machine that produces electricity by water power or by the friction of water or steam.

(4a) Repealed by Session Laws 2002-87, s. 3, effective August 22, 2002.

(4b) Installation of renewable energy property. - Renewable energy property that, standing alone or in combination with other machinery, equipment, or real property, is able to produce usable energy on its own.

(5) Purchase. - Defined in section 179 of the Code.

(6) Renewable biomass resources. - Organic matter produced by terrestrial and aquatic plants and animals, such as standing vegetation, aquatic crops, forestry and agricultural residues, spent pulping liquor, landfill wastes, and animal wastes.

(7) Renewable energy property. - Any of the following machinery and equipment or real property:

a. Biomass equipment that uses renewable biomass resources for biofuel production of ethanol, methanol, and biodiesel; anaerobic biogas production of methane utilizing agricultural and animal waste or garbage; or commercial thermal or electrical generation. The term also includes related devices for converting, conditioning, and storing the liquid fuels, gas, and electricity produced with biomass equipment.

b. Combined heat and power system property. - Defined in section 48 of the Code.

c. Geothermal equipment that meets either of the following descriptions:

1. It is a heat pump that uses the ground or groundwater as a thermal energy source to heat a structure or as a thermal energy sink to cool a structure.

2. It uses the internal heat of the earth as a substitute for traditional energy for water heating or active space heating or cooling.

d. Hydroelectric generators located at existing dams or in free-flowing waterways, and related devices for water supply and control, and converting, conditioning, and storing the electricity generated.

e. Solar energy equipment that uses solar radiation as a substitute for traditional energy for water heating, active space heating and cooling, passive heating, daylighting, generating electricity, distillation, desalination, detoxification, or the production of industrial or commercial process heat. The term also includes related devices necessary for collecting, storing, exchanging, conditioning, or converting solar energy to other useful forms of energy.

f. Wind equipment required to capture and convert wind energy into electricity or mechanical power, and related devices for converting, conditioning, and storing the electricity produced or relaying the electricity by cable from the turbine motor to the power grid.

(8) Renewable fuel. - Either of the following:

a. Biodiesel, as defined in G.S. 105-449.60.

b. Ethanol either unmixed or in mixtures with gasoline that are seventy percent (70%) or more ethanol by volume.