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.

The stimulus bill currently being drafted by U.S. Congress contains language that seeks to change the tax credits received from investing in solar and wind energy into direct payments to investors for the next two years.

That means that the 30% renewable energy tax credit that is given to solar energy and wind power investors would be changed so that those investors would be paid out in grant within 60 days. There is also no cap on the amount that can be paid out.

But this is all part of an early draft version of the $825 billion stimulus bill which still has to survive both houses of Congress. Will it see changes before it sees the light of approval? You can bet on it. It’s just a matter of what and how much.