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500 Solar Companies Are Standing Ready To Help Homeowners Control Their Electricity Costs

500 Solar Companies Are Standing Ready To Help Homeowners Control Their Electricity CostsCompanies striving to build a stronger solar energy industry throughout Pennsylvania are converging on Harrisburg to persuade lawmakers to pass House Bill 2405 by sharing personal stories and demonstrating the role that tax incentives and state grants are playing in creating new, sustainable, good-paying jobs and helping homeowners and businesses better control their electricity costs.
“We’ve made valuable progress with the state’s alternative energy requirement, the Federal Investment Tax Credit and the state’s Sunshine solar grant program,” said Kira Costanza of SunPower Builders based in Collegeville, PA. “Reducing carbon emissions in an energy economy heavily dependent on fossil fuels takes time.

House Bill 2405 helps the state with the necessary next steps to do what many neighboring states are doing by boosting their commitments to renewable energy and enabling consumers to generate some of their own electricity.”

House Bill 2405 is expected to be voted on in committee tomorrow, Tuesday, June 8th. “Time is running short in this legislative session to pass this timely energy legislation for Pennsylvania. Due to the success of the federal and state solar incentive programs, the solar industry needs the requirement for utilities and electric generation suppliers to purchase renewable energy be increased to match the supply of projects waiting to be developed while there are still incentives to help bring down the cost,” said Maureen Mulligan, a lobbyist for the two key solar trade associations active in Pennsylvania. HB#2405′s principal focus is on advancing coal combustion technologies that reduce carbon dioxide emissions. But it also would set the fee utilities must pay if they do not sell a requisite amount of electricity generated by renewable sources such as solar and wind. Those fees can help sustain renewable energy programs in the Commonwealth.

For each 1,000 kilowatt hour shortfall, the fee, called an alternative compliance payment, would be $450 in 2011, and decline 3% percent annually. In addition, HB 2405 would enhance the role that Alternate Energy Credits would play in helping finance renewable energy projects. A solar system earns one Alternate Energy Credit for each 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity it generates. Those credits can be sold for cash, in some cases in advance based on projected generation to help defray up-front installation costs.


Just last month, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed a new solar bill into law that boosts the state’s ability to achieve its 20% renewable electricity mandate by 2022 (2% from solar) with a compliance payment set at $400 through 2014. This month, Delaware is expected to pass legislation that could set the compliance fee at $500 and raise the amount of electricity to be generated from renewable sources to a region-leading 25% by 2025, with 3.5% of that coming from solar. As with other states, Maryland and Delaware are incentivizing in-state
solar projects designed and installed by companies in their states. Under this bill, Pennsylvania would also restrict projects to those built within the state and would increase the solar share from .5% to 3%.

The twenty solar businesses organized by PA Solar Energy Industries Association, who will be attending legislative meetings in Harrisburg next week, will be discussing the benefits of passing HB 2405 before the legislature recesses for the summer and will hand out a one-page summary of testimonials by solar energy professionals who attribute their growth to past legislative actions that promoted solar energy.

“Before the Pennsylvania Sunshine solar grant program began, there were about 15 certified solar installation companies in Pennsylvania. Today there are more than 500. And many of those employ more than 10 employees,” said Ron Celentano, a solar expert and troubleshooter in Wyndmoor, PA who chairs the Pennsylvania Division of the Mid-Atlantic Solar Energy Industries Association. “That is a testament to the job engine that the solar industry is becoming throughout the Commonwealth.”

SOURCE: Pennsylvania Division of the Solar Energy Industries Association

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