Want to live in a kick-ass eco-friendly house, an all-new 2010 GMC Terrain and $100,000? HGTV is kicking off its 2010 Green Home Giveaway. Located in the Pinehills community of Plymouth, Massachusetts, just eight miles north of Cape Cod, this amazing home earned a GOLD Certification from the National Association of Home Builders.

“This is our first HGTV Green Home in a New England location, which gives us the chance to demonstrate the best building products and practices uniquely suited for the charm and challenges of a northeast climate,” said Jack Thomasson, HGTV House Planner. “As an added bonus, the fantastic amenities of The Pinehills community offer a lifestyle suited for the outdoor and eco-enthusiast. The house and community make this our best HGTV Green Home yet.”

If you have been wanting to make your home greener, the time is now, friends. With Barack Obama’s eco-initiatives taking hold, you could seriously supplement the cost of green renovations with tax credits. For those of you who feel like you’ve been gipped by the recent drop in real estate, here’s a way you can cost-effectively restore equity in your home, and make the planet a healthier place to live.

Tax incentives for energy-efficient and renewable-energy home improvements may offer some consolation to homeowners who are feeling the burn of the downturn in the real estate boom.

What’s in it for you? Well here are some ways you can maximize your home’s potential with the help of the government’s dime.

• Get new windows! Energy-efficient windows and insulation are eligible for a tax credit of 30% of qualifying costs up to $1,500.
• Solar, wind, geothermal and other renewable energy systems may qualify for a 30% tax credit.
• Heating stoves that use renewable biomass fuel now qualify for a tax credit.

There’s also a $1,500 energy-efficient credit, which currently lasts only last two years, meaning consumers must find a way to spend during this economic downturn.

“This is a pretty lucrative deal, and I don’t think the government can continue to do it going forward because it’s expensive,” says Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a not-for-profit based in Washington, D.C.

However, before you go out buying solar panels, be sure you’ve done your homework first. The IRS is expected to issue firm guidelines on specific details of the credits soon. Be sure to consult your accountant or tax professionals before filing the deductions.

Become an environmentalist, add money to your home and also save on energy bills? It’s a win-win situation.

This dude is pretty impressed with his do-it-yourself cheap home solar panel system with lights. Check out the video as he takes you on a tour of his house, explaining how he installed this inexpensive solar power system (45 watts total). He got the cheap solar panels off Ebay and is thrilled to bits!

Want affordable solar panels? Sir Charls Shults shows us how he can make 6 kw Solar Systems for a fraction of today’s PV solar panel costs. With Shults’ method, you can power your home and Electric Car for $6,000 – way less than standard industry prices for PV systems.

Eco-friendly drywall? A drywall company has made this strange concept a reality – baking their own gypsum-based drywall without burning fossil fuels by using the heat of the sun. Cleanboard, a San Francisco start-up company, prides itself in the fact that they can provide the same quality of gypsum drywall that has been on the market for years, except theirs is a “zero carbon footprint” product.

CleanBoard uses mirrors to collect and concentrate the sun’s rays on a heat collector, which then heats a transfer fluid that will be used to heat drywall ovens. Excess heat transfer fluid will be stored in pressurized chambers for up to 24 hours, enabling the company to continue to make drywall, even on those rainy days.

“We only want heat to power an oven,” CleanBoard founder Rod MacGregor said.

The company has developed the patent-pending technology with plans to begin full production in 2010.