Tennessee Solar Power Rebates, Tax Credits, and Incentives

I’m so frustrated!! I was inspired by watching a PBS broadcast the other night indicating the cost for installing solar for the average home was $15,000-$18,000. Now after reading your site it look to be about triple that cost.

While I am interested in solar, the cost still seems prohibitive. Too bad our state offers no incentives and the federal government offers little as well. I was impressed with Germany’s efforts. The U.S. just lags behind, oblivious to what the world and science is telling us. It’s so sad…and maddening.

Hi Bill,

Contact an Installer and get a quote. It won’t be much pain an suffering, and at least you’ll know for sure so you can make an informed decision if you want to do it or not. These numbers above aren’t 100% accurate, although they will be in the next two months or so.

Tennessee was just rated one of the most wasteful energy states. I have been attempting to wake up our local elected officials in Memphis and Shelby County to the need for incentives for renewable energy sources. So far they have fallen on deaf ears. Like wise the our state government is still in the 19th century. I have proposed the Memphis Pyramid be converted to a solar power station. The all glass exterior is perfect. This could generate electricity that could be sold back to the grid creating a new revenue stream for local government. No go to our flat earth officials.

Hi,
I,ve got a question.
To install a PV system in Teennessee state i,ve read you can subscribe “green power switch generation partners” throught TVA.
This is my question:
Can i install a PV system bigger than my home energy needs?
If yes, can i sell all this energy to TVA?
Thanks for all and sorry about my english, as you can see im not from USA, but im so interesting in solar energy market.
Cheers.

Why should the government offer incentives any way. If you want to use solar go for it. If you can’t and don’t like the idea of good clean coal - turn off your lights and AC and truley live in the 19century.

Julio,

First off, call up TVA and talk with someone from Generation Partners. I can’t give you names, because that would be rude of me. Size is limited too 0.5 to 50 kW AC. You can produce as much as you want. I also beleive that they are trying to put a bill through Senate that increases the Residential Solar and Fuel Cell Tax Credit from 2000, to 4000. I do some work as a newbie energy consultant. Email me and I can fill in some spreadsheets for you so you can see ROI and what not.

god what a frustrating state! i just moved to the nashville area from missouri (which wasn’t much better), and i am shocked to see how little concern there seems to be for sustainability and ecology here. my wife and i are actively looking for land to buy so we can build our eco-house… i am very sad to see that we won’t be getting any state help to make solar power financially feasible for us.

well, i hear that over the next two years the cost of solar tech will drop dramatically, making it accessible to practically anyone… lets keep fingers crossed that corporations don’t hijack the tech and hold it back from the public for the sake of the bottom line and keeping investors happy… there is just too much at stake here!

Does anyone know the best way to find a contractor capable of sealing and weatherstripping an old house in Memphis. I know I can go to the phone book, but I wanted to find someone who knew what they were doing instead of throwing up some weatherstripping and saying it was done.

Andrew: The state and Federal governments should offer an incentive because you’ve spent all of your money building your own energy system and no longer burn up all of the coal. Less coal, less emissions, less carbon footprint, less waste, less of everything bad. But something tells me you’re a non-believer.

What’s with the incredibly high estimates from this solar calculator on this and every other solar install website I hit?? I too hear all the time about $10,000 to $20,000 for an install, then this calculator keeps coughing up $60,000 (!!!!!) for a small system supplying half of small house energy needs. OK either all these news reports are wrong or this calculator is a unbelievably harmful POS that is actually DISCOURAGING everyone from going solar. Which is it?