I was recently at the Green Cities conference in Orlando where some numbers were presented by a representative with the NRDC that stated that the Solar Rebate program was replenished with $5 million from the Florida portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka the stimulus bill) and will be using another $9 million for some sort of revolving loan fund for solar thermal to provide micro-loans up to $4500 for up to 5 years at a rate of 2-4% interest.
- update: There seems to be another pot of money to be used to replenish the rebate, doubling the total amount available, which would provide the funds to make good on the backlog and provide new funding for this fiscal year. This post has been edited to reflect that change.
There's another $20 million for solar schools / shelters which was a pretty successful program for getting demonstration sized solar onto schools for a couple years under Governor Bush. This would be a significant bump in funding and if FSEC is involved, I know they were trying to up the size of the installations to 10 kw so they could provide some off-grid emergency shelter functionality too.
You can find the details on the Florida Energy and Environment Commission website page on ARRA and an explanation on all the ways the State wants to spend $126 million on energy programs on this adobe document from the same web page.
The good news is all those nail-biting solar customers who went out on a limb and installed approved solar systems last year and applied for a rebate should get a check, but we're now relying on stimulus money to keep the program alive for just another year.
We need a public benefit fund in this State. Connecticut spends more on solar PV than Florida for goodness sake! And we need to provide a separate funding block for efficiency and thermal or PV will continue to eat up all the funds. As much as I love PV, thermal will have a much faster penetration into the market because of faster payback, less complicated installation and maintenance, and way less roof needed to go solar. Maybe the loan program concept will work since it will take the sting out of the initial up-front cost, but there's nothing like reducing your total out-of-pocket to pump up interest.
Solar thermal is the one part of the Florida alternative energy industry that struggled and survived through the down decades, and they need a fair shake when it comes to the incentives too. There's my shout-out for our scrappy solar thermal companies out there.
On that front, news to report about the Miami-Dade code recommendations. Post to follow soon when I get details. Good news for thermal and PV installations in Southeast Florida.
Monday, June 1, 2009
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