Incentive Programs Help Make Solar Goals a Reality
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When Namaste Solar’s company truck pulled up to my house a few weeks ago and its PV installation crew started setting up, it marked 30 years since I had installed my first PV system on my own passive solar house in Vermont in 1979. That’s ancient history now, but it was pretty cool back then, as I was the only homeowner in town who didn’t get a utility bill and often was the only house in the county with electrical power after a deep snow or strong wind.
Starting in 1976, my partner Ed Butler and I installed solar systems in every state in New England--we had to in order to stay busy. In sharp contrast, Namaste’s Boulder, Colo., crews are backlogged for months and sleep at home every night. And there are at least four or five other companies busily serving Boulder County and its surrounds; what a difference a few decades makes.
We decided to install our own system this year after checking out Boulder County’s innovative ClimateSmart program, which combines a hefty utility company rebate with an attractive no-money-down financing package tied to our property tax payments. Boulder is one of the first counties in the country to successfully launch a program like this after Berkeley, Calif., piloted an early prototype that has yet to catch on.
We installed a 4.14-kW, grid-connected system, made up of 18 Sharp NU-U230F3 panels along with a Fronius IG inverter that should provide almost 100% of our electrical demand. In addition to ClimateSmart’s financial incentives and the 30% federal tax credit, Namaste offers its own Sunsurance Production Guarantee. This 10-year program uses an eGauge Energy Meter to monitor actual annual system performance compared to design benchmarks, and Namaste reimburses owners (per kWh) for under-production.
With incentives covering not just solar installations but also energy retrofits and upgrades, the ClimateSmart program, with its utility partner Xcel Energy, is credited with saving a good number of jobs around Boulder over the past year or so. A number of similar programs are sprouting up in other areas (see related story), which in turn are helping drive remarkable growth among PV manufacturers.
Our own system would have cost $26,470 installed without incentives. Of this total, Xcel Energy is covering $14,490 as a rebate, and after we apply our 30% tax credit, we’re financing a balance of $8,400 over 15 years. It will, for a while at least, be a trade-off between our lower-to-zero monthly electric bills and our increased annual property tax payments. These will probably net each other out for the first five years, but this wasn’t just about saving money; we’re feeling really great about shrinking our carbon footprint. The ClimateSmart program sealed the deal. I didn’t have to lay out all that money up front, and I don’t have to worry, if I decide to sell in the next few years, about convincing a future buyer that the house is worth X-dollars more to try and recoup my solar investment. In fact, I’m banking on the idea that our PV system will someday help us sell our house when the time comes.
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