Quote:
Originally Posted by JSH
You mentioned one of the incentives runs out in the middle of the year. Is that the ODOE rebate? I noticed it says all the money has been allocated as of 15-April. How does the process work? Does your contractor reserve a block of that money in advance or do you have to hope your system gets installed before the money runs out.
I see ODOE is $0.50 per watt with a maximum of 40% or $5,000. Is that 40% of the total installed cost or just the panels?
Energy Trust is $0.30 per watt with a max of $2,400. Any percentage on that one?
I see the Federal Credit is $26% of the cost with no max but expires at the end of 2021.
I might need to look at solar again.
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The ODOE and EnergyTrust incentives are similar in how they are claimed, where a registered "Trade Ally" enters into contract for the project. Then they submit the request for funds from those programs. ODOE released funds in 2 waves, and the "non-income restricted" funds were 100% claimed about 10 minutes after 8:00am on April 15th. Each company was allowed to submit no more than 20 jobs, and my contract stated that the installer would eat the ODOE funds if they couldn't secure them. They got the funds however. I don't think ODOE funds are coming back.
EnergyTrust funding has slowly been getting reduced and I believe those will be phased out entirely at some point in the near future. No percentage, just $0.30/watt up to $2,400.
The Federal tax credit was at 30% but reduced this year to 26%. Next year it drops to 22%, and expires altogether beginning in 2022. The unclaimed portion of the credit can be rolled over many tax years.
In all cases, the credits applly to the cost of the whole system, materials and labor. I'm not sure if permitting fees and such are also included, but I suspect they are since my installer paid all of it. I did nothing but sign the contract, and sign paperwork for the various incentive programs and PGE net metering application. The installer handled submitting all of that.
PGE comes out tomorrow to swap the meter, so my electric bill is dropping to the connection fee of ~$12/mo plus minor taxes.
This weekend I'm running a 100ft trench out at my parent's field and the same solar installer is building their system. The installer is crediting us $500 for doing the trench, and I wanted to rent a trencher anyhow to put in an inground sprinkler system.
Trade Ally list:
https://www.energytrust.org/find-a-c...7317&type=home
Start with finding out if PGE even allows net metering in your area:
https://www.portlandgeneral.com/resi...t-metering-map
Areas are rapidly becoming restricted. My parents address was in the clear at the time we submitted our application, but then PGE required a further level 2 study before accepting the net metering application. Now that I check my parents address, it's in a newly restricted area. Guess we came in just under the wire there.
I'm hoping that we get grandfathered into net metering rather than the program disappearing entirely in the future.