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Why Solar
Financing and Incentives
Although the sun’s energy is free, the up-front costs of solar equipment
can be daunting. Our staff will work with you to help you understand
all the resources that are available to make solar an affordable choice.
The federal government extended incentives for renewable energy through 2016. These
federal incentives include tax
credits of 30% of the system cost for homeowners who have solar hot water
or PV systems installed. The state of Pennsylvania also has rebates available
for homeowners and businesses. For more information on the State’s program
click here.
Businesses interested in solar can take advantage of a number of incentives
and should contact Arvak Energy Solutions for more details. Incentives
can include federal tax credits or grants, accelerated depreciation, state
rebates, and state alternative energy production tax credits.
Net Metering
 In Pennsylvania, investor-owned utilities (PECO, Met-Ed, PPL) must offer net
metering to residential customers that generate electricity using solar. Net
metering is achieved by measuring and recording the flow of electricity into
and out of a home. Each month any net excess generation is carried forward
and credited to the customer's next bill. As long as a customer does
not produce more electricity than they consume over the course of a year they
are credited at the full retail rate.
Alternative Energy Credits
An Alternative Energy Credit (AEC) is a tradable certificate that represents
all the clean energy benefits of electricity generated with solar or other
alternative energy sources. The value for these credits for owners of
solar systems is significant and is often more than the savings generated from
offset power costs. The Pennsylvania Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard
(AEPS) requires that electric distribution and generation companies in Pennsylvania
supply an annually increasing percentage of
their electricity using alternative-energy resources. AECs can be purchased
from owners of solar systems to demonstrate compliance with the standard. The penalty for
not meeting the AEPS sets the price ceiling for the AECs. Owners of solar
systems produce one AEC for every 1000 kWh of clean power that they generate. These
credits are then typically sold to the utility through an aggregator who pools
credits from multiple residential systems so that the utility can buy large
numbers of credits at a time.
Below are some resources that can make solar more affordable:
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Why Solar
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