Hooksett resident Lee Scott wants to reduce his carbon footprint and his energy bills – that is, as long as his property taxes don’t skyrocket in return.

That’s why Scott has been working tirelessly with the Hooksett Town Council to pass a local ordinance that would provide property tax exemptions for renewable sources of energy like solar panels, wind turbines and wood-burning stoves.

“I am going to start out small with my solar system,” Scott said. “It will be a fixed 2,000- watt system, which will cost me around $18,000 to construct. I will be doing the installation myself to save around $10,000, but I’m probably one of the few who could accomplish the task on their own.”

Anyone who invests in such an expensive initiative to be green should be offered a property tax break, he said.

Town Assessor Todd Haywood said his office does not currently assess solar panels, if they exist, on Hooksett homes.

If the Town Council passed an ordinance that would exempt potential users from paying extra on their tax bills, it would require Haywood’s department to assess the homes with solar panels and then to deduct that added value from the final bill.

That process could take upwards of five years, he said, which would not necessarily be a problem, he added, because the town is currently beginning a new five-year cycle of revaluations anyway.

At a Town Council meeting earlier this month, some councilors expressed the idea that passing the ordinance would be unnecessary since Hooksett currently ignores the existence of solar panels anyway.

“The town would have to start assessing something we currently don’t assess to accommodate this request,” said Town Councilor David Ross. “I think it’s almost a moot issue until the day we decide to start assessing these things.”

Town Councilor Paul Loiselle said that because the town is not assessing the different sources of renewable energy technologies, the process of adding them and then exempting their values from town property cards seems time consuming.

“It’s kind of redundant, isn’t it?” Loiselle asked.

But Scott isn’t willing to spend almost $20,000 on a series of solar cells when the town could potentially turn around and increase a tax bill that he says is already hard enough to pay.

“Do I take a chance and spend $22,000 to $25,000 this year and see if they keep up their current practice?” Scott asked.

He doesn’t have the answer yet. Neither does the Town Council, which has indicated it will revisit the topic at an upcoming meeting.