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You’ve probably heard of high profile investments in solar by large retailers like Ikea, Kohl’s, Costco, and the world’s largest retailer, Walmart. These investments leverage the long terms assets (real estate) of the companies into income producing machines both inside and out. Coupled with various tax credits, accelerated depreciation, rebates, and other incentives, investments in solar make great financial sense for companies who have maximized interior square footage, but haven’t taken advantage of massive swaths of roof space. Walmart alone has installed over 65 megawatts of solar capacity to date. Susan O’Neal Gear of Upstream Insight has an interesting perspective on big-box solar investments. She hypothesizesRead More →

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Net Metering, the concept and laws that allow solar electricity producers to connect to the grid and sell back energy, is under attack in the United States. Florida has been spared from the recent trend of utility companies working publicly to repeal or amend Net Metering laws. Utility companies in other states have taken various public and well-funded measures to repeal Net Metering laws or to make Net Metering less attractive to solar energy customers. For example, Arizona utilities recently succeeded in adding a fixed charged for solar producers based on photovoltaic system size. While it was opposed by the solar industry and the finalRead More →

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I just received my FPL Solar Rebate check for the solar photovoltaic system I installed at my home. Needless to say, I’m a happy man today. FPL has a highly competitive rebate program that grants funds to about 300 lucky residential customers per year. The maximum rebate amount is currently $20,000 for a 10 kilowatt rated solar energy system, covering about half of the typical cost. The Federal government kicks in another 30%. The bad news is, the rebate funds are exhausted for 2014. The good news – plummeting PV prices have made photovoltaic systems reasonable investments without utility rebates!

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I just read an article published today on the Harvard Business Review blog that misses the point about businesses, specifically banks and other financial institutions, engaging in sustainable building practices. The article focuses on how companies should be less focused on environmental sustainability and more focused on financial sustainability given the nation’s disfavorable attitude toward banks today. What the article fails to regognize is that sustainable building, when done right, is financially responsible and sustainable! Green building techniques have returns on investment associated with them, and some can be extremely favorable, especially when combined with utility and government incentives. Banks often operate on razor-thin marginsRead More →

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Florida House Bill 0277 (2013) has passed both the House and Senate unanimously. This bill makes official the de facto standard used by county property appraisers that excludes renewable energy (i.e. solar energy, wind energy) systems from assessed property values. This exclusion was inadvertently removed from law during a previous congress in 2008. Various attempts have been made to reenact the exemption, with no success until now. According to the Florida Solar Energy Industries Association, “The bill implements a constitutional ballot initiative approved in the 2008 general election by Florida voters, which prohibits adding the value of certain home improvements specific to the installation andRead More →

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As expected, Cape Coral passed the Public Service Tax measure on April 29, 2013. The tax impacts every utility electric customer in the City. The more you use electricity, the more tax you pay. As I noted in my earlier post, solar energy producers can avoid tax on every kilowatt-hour they reduce or produce with solar energy. The City of Cape Coral released an online calculator that has a few deficiencies. Most importantly to me is that the calculator ignores solar producing customers using LCEC’s netmetering program (both commercial and residential). If you are a small commercial (non-demand charge) or residential customer with solar electricRead More →

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I thought April 15 would be a great day to talk about the tax benefits of solar electricity. However, I’m not really going to talk about the massive 30% tax credit you can take on a solar electric (solar photovoltaic or PV) system. I want to talk about the tax implications of the stream of income that follows an investment in solar energy. The return you get on a solar energy investment isn’t usually dollars back in your pocket or bank account in the traditional sense of investing. Your return is the reduced electricity bills you will see for the next 40 years (yes, solarRead More →

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FPL made an important and appreciated change to their solar rebate program for this round of funding. They said they would take applications after the funds were exhausted to put applicants on a standby list, as many customers do not go through with installations. I was surprised to see that the standby list was limited, and applications were eventually rejected. That really does not make sense, unless FPL does not really want to know how many people want rebates but cannot get one. Wouldn’t it make sense to take all applications in the order received? That way we could gauge demand and adjust the rebateRead More →

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FPL will open up the next round of solar rebate applications on October 16, 2012 at 8:30 am. Rebate applicants will need a licensed solar contractor to install their system, and are advised to contact me urgently to get an evaluation, conditional contract, and in the queue for a rebate application submission. The total funding for this round of rebates is $9 million. FPL took one of FlaSEIA’s recommendations and is allowing applications to go through once the available funds are exhausted. If successful applicants do not pursue an installation, the next applicant will be offered a rebate approval. That’s a step in the rightRead More →

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As if FPL’s solar rebate program didn’t run out of funds fast enough the last time around, Tampa Electric’s Solar Photovoltaic allotment of rebates evaporated in one minute – less time than FPL applicants found themselves having to secure a lucrative rebate. TECO’s solar rebate program, which released funds this morning at 10 am, was expected to run out of funds on the first day like the FPL program, but this is a record time for rebates to be snatched up. This is NOT a “first-come, first served” application process like the utility companies would have you believe. It is basically a lottery, but aRead More →

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What was once true has become a myth. In years past, it didn’t make much sense to install solar panels (solar electric/photovoltaic modules) from a financial standpoint without generous subsidies, rebates, and incentives. The payback period was too long for most investors (see my article on the folly of the payback metric here). Except for those lucky enough to access a rebate, the numbers just didn’t make sense. In case you haven’t heard, solar panels have plummeted in price. We’re talking about a >75% drop in wholesale and retail prices in the last three years. Total installed costs have been cut in half. Meanwhile, electricityRead More →

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The most complex financial analyses that solar dealers need to perform are for grid-interactive solar electric systems. The number of variables makes an accurate and reliable analysis difficult to provide to potential customers (investors). However, there are plenty of models out there to give us an idea of the realistic investment returns a system owner can expect. Some are simplistic, while others are tremendously sophisticated. The key is to ensure that the inputs are realistic and accurate. The first kind of analysis, the one that most people ask for, is the payback. Many people, myself included, are critical of this metric, primarily because it isRead More →

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As a financial analyst by education, I’m surprised at how few posts I’ve made on the investment returns of solar energy products. Residential solar energy systems provide a return on investment that rival investments of similar risk. One factor that is often left out of financial analyses is the impact of personal income taxes, not from the perspective of tax credits, but from the perspective of electricity costs. Let me explain… When you pay for your utility bill each month, you are probably paying with money from your checking account. This is money upon which you have presumably paid taxes, or will pay taxes. Let’sRead More →

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Last Thursday FPL took applications for the remaining 2012 solar rebate funds. As expected, funding ran out quickly… as in under two minutes! My employer had quite a few rebate applicants lined up for solar electric systems. I decided before the rebate website went live that I wouldn’t post the results or my reaction in a knee-jerk manner. While I was angry and disappointed, I wasn’t surprised. Now that the dust has settled, I can respond effectively. We did secure rebates for some of our customers, but any process that rewards rebate applicants for being able to type fast is just silly. I have criticizedRead More →

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FPL has announced that the remaining 2012 solar rebate funding will be released on May 3, 2012 for solar photovoltaic (electric) and solar water heating systems. If you want any chance of getting in on the best solar rebate in Florida history, you need to act NOW. Call your favorite solar contractor and they will walk you through the application process. Because the rebates are highly competitive and the amount available will be very limited, it is likely that the funding will run out in the first 10 minutes. The online application process requires advance planning and detailed information about the system you intend toRead More →