California Solar Initiative: No solar home installations “completed” yet in 2007

CSI should examine the Evidence of problems beyond Time of Use Rates

In The Monterey County Herald Guest commentary, Dale Julin reports STATE SOLAR PROJECT SHADY: Stalled initiative squeezing smaller companies.

As recent as May 21, 2007, the CSI & SGIP Statewide Average Systems Costs (May 2007) (downloadable Excel file) proves no CSI Residential or Commercial system installations have been completed in 2007. Don’t be deceived by the Statistics sheet; this includes prior year data despite the title.

Beyond the publicized Time of Use issue I mentioned at the end of California Clean Tech Open 2007 Kick-off Event Wrap up, solar installers are finding the new rebate application process novel like compared to the previous single page rebate form. For example, there are now two 2-Step instruction forms, 2-Step Application Process and 2-Step Forms and Documentation Requirements, describing the general procedure to apply and obtain solar rebates or Expected Performance Based Buydown (EPBB) incentives for residential and business installations smaller than 10kWp (kilowatt – peak).

The EPBB incentive for a particular project is determined by a complex set of rules evaluating the system components, design, and the installation implementation. Although these rules are intended to guarantee customers robust and optimal performance systems, strict adherence to these rules can maximize the EPBB incentive while the solar electric system is setup for maximum summer electricity generation at the expense of higher annual production.

The myriad of paperwork required for an incentive application can be viewed on the PG&E Corporation site at 2007 CSI Handbook and Forms CSI Forms or take a look at the CSI Handbook.

I noticed Mr. Julin’s article today courtesy of Google Alerts (Google Account not required) I have set up for the keywords Solar and Photovoltaic. If you thought this post was about that other CSI, you can visit the Official CSI:WIKI instead.