California State Solar Power Incentives, Rebates, and Tax Credits.
Links to all posts concerning California
Governor Arnold has our back here in California. He has made leaps and bounds toward increasing the solar production in California, which comprises about 85% of all solar installations in our country. He has worked with the power companies to get them to commit to producing 20% of their power with renewable energy by 2010, and plans for solar power plants are exploding.
The California Solar Initiative - The State Rebate for Solar
The CSI is part of Arnold’s Million Solar Roofs program, which aims to create 3000 MegaWatts of new solar power by 2017 in California. The bulk of this program is run by the California Public Utilities Commission and is for existing homes, new and existing businesses, and public entities. The rest is handled by the California Energy Commission which manages a 10-year, $400 million program to encourage solar in new home construction through its New Solar Homes Partnership.
- The rebate started at $2.50 per watt and drops in 30 cent increments as more and more people install Solar Power. No on really knows when the next break will hit, although this site helps you guess. Amazingly PG&E is reporting no backlog for CSI applications. You can calculate the CSI rebate using the solar rebate calculator, and here are the instructions.
- Go Solar California is the home page for the California Solar Initiative. Stay up to date with their newsletter, use their handbook, and check out the video from our Governer Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- There are special rebates available for low-income households.
California Solar Tax Credits
Unfortunately, both solar and wind tax credits and California went away 12/31/05. There were probably not replaced because the “Million Solar Roofs” program, also called the Califonia Solar Initiative, was magnificently large ($3.3 Billion) and enough to get the job done. You still can qualify for the federal solar tax credit.
Misc.
1. Low income homes can receive up to a 20% discount on their power bills here.
3. Unlike many other states, California net metering laws do not require California to buy excess power if you generate more than you use in a year.
4. The Solar Water Heating and Efficiency Act of 2007 and our Post about it
5. NEW! San Francisco proposed munipal credit (pending approval) and Berkeley’s proposed program for paying for solar through your taxes (which already passed).
Residential Example System Purchase
For this example, we’re gonna use a 3kW system for a PG&E customer in San Francisco, California (A 3kw System Looks Like This).
California has a solar rating of about 5 kWh/sq-m/day. This means your system would require about 300 sq-ft of roof space, and we’re assuming you are on PG&E’s Time of Use (TOU) schedule. That schedule pays more for energy you produce during peak hours.
Estimated 3kw system cost = $26,000 (this will vary from installer to installer, but it’s a solid guess)
Credits are about $5600 state (from the California Solar Initiative links above). We assume you get $2.2 per watt capacity, and an 80% capacity of the max power (3000watts * 80% * $2.2 = $5600) and a $2000 Federal Tax Credit.
That leaves you with a net cost of about $18,400.
Property value increase is estimated at about 20X first year energy savings (this varies quite a bit depending on many factors, but there’s lots of evidence to support this 20X number in resale)… First year energy savings work out to about $88/mo, so that’s about ($88*20X*12months = $21120). So bang! You’ve already got your money back on paper, and everything else is gravy… here’s the gravy:
Let’s assume energy prices increase 4% every year from here on out. Could be better could be worse, but with the energy crisis, my bet is on worse. That would mean that $88 is saving you around $286 a month, $3432 a year, in 30 years.
And let’s not forget the obvious: So if you’re using PG&E Time of Use schedule and you’re saving $88, lets say that’s about about 73% of the 680 kWhs your house consumes a month, or 497 kWh. At 1.336 pounds of carbon dioxide per kWh means you save over 47 TONS of greenhouse gas in 25 years. Wow. That’s 95,000 car miles.
BUSINESS
1. California Public Utilities Commission
2. Community Choice - Allows aggregation the electric loads of residents, businesses and municipal facilities to facilitate the purchase and sale of electrical energy. Go free market! You will soon be able to choose your electric energy supplier! You already can if you live in the San Joaquin Valley
GENERAL LINKS
1. Lawrence Berkeley National Labs - Within the Electricity Market and Policy area, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab analyzes public interest policy issues and conducts research projects on key electricity market issues, including electric power system reliability, energy efficiency, demand response, renewable energy, distributed energy resources, and retail energy services.
3. California Energy Commission
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