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New state regulations and increased paperwork seem to be the blame for customers having to wait months and months to get state rebates on [tag-tec]solar energy[/tag-tec] installations in California. The solar business is now booming in California but companies that install systems are being increasingly delayed and frustrated by the months of paperwork they have to submit on behalf of home0onwers who have installed solar systems this year.
“In almost every possible way one could think of, this program has added to the complication and time it takes,” said Gary Gerber, president of Sun Light and Power in Berkeley.
“We’re in the first six months of an entirely new way of incenting solar in the state,” said Polly Shaw, who leads the rebate program team at the California Public Utilities Commission. “It’s natural that we’re going to have some lessons learned.”
Under the energy commission program, the size of rebates was based on the size of the solar system each homeowner installed. The new program focuses on output. If a solar system doesn’t face the sun directly or is shaded by trees for part of the day, the homeowner gets less money.
As a result, homeowners and the installation companies they hire now have to submit a thorough study designed to predict just how much power their planned solar system will produce. The study involves a stack of paperwork that takes time to complete, installers say.
The program has other elements that can delay rebates. Homeowners must complete an energy-efficiency audit as part of the application process. The utility must approve the system’s connection to the state power grid before the homeowners get their rebate.
SF Gate
Some glitches at the state level have been fixed now , including one in which customers were actually charged more for electricity after installing solar instead of less. The hope is to fix the issue but for now it can take up to eight months for the state rebates to get issued. Installers oftern deduct the rebate from the installation bill and then cahs the checks from the state when they are issued. This means they have to float thousands of dollars in income.
The state of California is hoping to fix that problem. No one wants to see the solar rebate program go away since it has been resposible for a huge boost in the solar business, rather most would just like to see the path smoothed a bit.
