Act Now – LIPA Rebate Funds are Running Out!

If you are at all considering going solar, you don’t want to miss out on the fleeting opportunity to have up to 35% of your solar electric system paid for by LIPA.

The current rebate is $2.00/watt (up to 10KW) for a residential solar electric system.  That means LIPA will potentially pay up to $20,000 of the system cost!  However, it is possible that the LIPA Rebate will run out in the next two weeks and there are no guarantees that rebates will be available in the future.

The chart below was taken from the LIPA webpage:

This graph shows that as of August 6, 2010 the Solar Pioneer Rebate (which is the Residential program) is almost gone.  There are only 200 KW left for the year – that’s only 20 residential systems for all LIPA customers!  Just to give you some more insight, in the last three weeks the block went from 500KW to 800KW.  Within the next couple of weeks, the Solar Electric Rebate will likely disappear for the rest of the year.

If you would like to proceed with a solar electric system, there’s no time to waste if you want to secure these rebates.  Please call our Sales Manager, Joe Cordes, at your earliest convenience at 516-286-1477 and we can get you started.  We will have to submit your Rebate Application before they close the program for new applicants!

Invest with confidence. Act now.

What Will Happen to Long Island’s Solar Industry?

Annual US Grid-Tied PV Capacity Additions

Solar energy is growing strong in the United States.  Despite the deep recession,  installations grew 38% in 2009.  On Long Island solar installations have surged.  Solar has been successful in the region because of a good solar resource, high electric rates, and great Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) rebate program.  The growth of the industry has brought decreased system costs as manufacturers and installers achieve economies of scale.   LIPA carefully gauges installation costs and decreases its rebate accordingly in order to maintain a relatively constant solar investment rate of return.

LIPA solar rebates started at $6/watt in 2001.  Its sustained support over the past 9 years has been instrumental to the local industry’s growth.   In January of this year LIPA announced a 4 MW rebate program comprised of 4, 1-megawatt (MW) blocks to provide a degree of visibility to the industry.  The first block started at $2.50 / watt; the rebate decreases $0.25 / watt after 1-MW of solar rebate applications has been received.  LIPA also committed to posting the real-time rebate allocation information on its website.  We were pleased to have some degree of visibility.

Yesterday (May 3rd), LIPA lowered the  solar rebate by $0.25 to $2.00 /watt, meaning that 2 MW of the 4 MW is already allocated.  The first 2 MW were gone in just a few months – faster than expected – which shows that there is strong solar demand even at the lower rebate levels.  However, it is cause for concern because this implies that funding for the solar program could be gone by late summer.

There is uncertainty right now and we understand that might make some feel uneasy.  There has always been a notable amount of risk in this business because, despite decreasing equipment costs, we are still heavily dependent on subsidies.  There are many questions: Is the solar business viable on LI without rebates?  Does this mean companies should be more cautious about additional investment in the business and growth?  Will there be cut backs and layoffs in the Long Island solar industry?

Read more…

EmPower’s Commercial Solar Webinar

On Wednesday, April 14, David Schieren (EmPower’s CEO) hosted a webinar on commercial solar systems.  EmPower will be hosting more free webinars and free community seminars.  Check back to our website regularly to find out when and where our next events will be held.

Some of the topics covered in the commercial solar webinar were:

1. Benefits to Business
2. Pricing & Financing
3. Rebates &  Incentives
4. Ideal Solar & Roof Conditions
5. Plenty of Sample Solar System Pictures

You can view a recording of the webinar below.

Solar systems stand up to Long Island storm

Last Saturday, March 14, Long Island was slammed by a massive coastal storm that recorded wind speeds over 70 mph.  More than 260,000 LIPA customers lost power for various amounts of time.  Naturally, we wanted to make sure all of our solar installations were doing fine after the bad weather.  We monitored all of our clients’ systems remotely and could tell that everything was in order.  To be sure, we sent out an email asking that clients do a visual inspection of their systems.  In the end, all of our installations withstood the storm.  One of our clients in Belle Harbor sent us the picture above – you can see that the shingles are coming off the roof but the solar system is still in place!  Read what some of our clients told us about how their systems fared:

Raises for the guys that put on my system.  We and our neighbors were super impressed that nothing flew off. – Neil and Jen F., Long Beach

All is fine, generating kWhs Sunday, pleasantly surprised no uplifting of the panels, with such high winds. Kudos, great installation and great product! – Peggy P., Massapequa

We’re glad to hear our clients are happy and that our systems can handle extreme storms!