IRS forms for your 30% Federal Solar Tax Credit

Published on March 5, 2010 by Tor a.k.a. "Solar Fred".
Categories: tax credits.

Carl writes to us that his tax preparer doesn’t know how to apply for the 30% Federal Tax Credit.

We’ve answered part of this question before about how to calculate the 30% Federal Tax credit, but we’re going to go the extra mile and actually give all our beautiful solar people the IRS forms.  Send them over to your tax preparer and tell them to give you a discount. No need to thank us. Just buy us a beer next time you’re in the neighborhood, or let us sleep on your couch when we’re in your neighborhood.

For products “placed in service” in 2009, you need to file the 2009 IRS Form 5695 and submit it with your 2009 taxes (by April 15, 2010). On the 2009 1040 form, the residential energy tax credit (from Form 5695) is claimed on line 52.

“Placed in service” means the year your solar system was up and working on your roof. It doesn’t mean when you put down your deposit.  Similarly, for products “placed in service” this year in 2010, you’ll take the tax credit on your 2010 income taxes.

Thanks for the question, Carl! You rock for going solar!

New Solar Group Purchasing Programs in San Antonio. Here’s the Solar Beef.

Published on March 3, 2010 by Tor a.k.a. "Solar Fred".
Categories: 1bog, Buying Solar, Solar Installation Stuff, Solar State Incentives.

Photo:  San Antonio’s River Walk by Flickr/DCWriterDawn

Return visitors to SolarPowerRocks.com may notice that we’ve got some new links that say “Find Solar Group Purchasing Programs in Your City.” What does this mean and why should you care? A valid question. We shall explain.

What’s Solar Group Purchasing

It’s a simple concept. The more people who buy solar, the easier it is for a single solar company to give volume discounts. Our new partner, One Block Off the Grid, (1bog.org), pre-negotiates a no-haggle, low price for solar with a large installer in a particular city. All you have to do is sign up, and get the discounted deal.

There are many cities where 1bog.org has active solar deals. The latest two are in Northern New Jersey and San Antonio, Texas. We recently highlighted the tremendous rebates available in Northern New Jersey, so let’s shine a solar powered light on 1bog’s new San Antonio campaign.

Benefits:

• The lowest price Solar Fred has ever seen. At $4.80/DC Watt, I have to say that I have never seen a price that low for a residential installation. Seriously. The average price for solar around the U.S. is around $6 to $7/watt. That $1.20/watt discount is going to save you thousands of dollars. For say an average 5000 watt system, $1.20 x 5000 adds up to…. $6000 off! To see how much solar will actually cost you, 1bog has created a very simple to use estimate calculator. Use it after you read the rest of these bullet points. Or come back. I’ll wait.
• 1bog keeps it simple. They do your homework for you and deal only with the most qualified solar installers in your area. For San Antonio, 1bog chose Standard Renewable Energy, a national installer that’s been around the block with solar many, many times. In Texas alone, they’ve installed 200 kW a month for the past six months. That’s about 40 homes a month, so you know they’re going to do it right with all of that experience.
• You get quality solar panels. 1bog ensured that you’re not getting cheap no-name brand equipment for their low price. Depending on your needs, you’ll get either SunTech or Sanyo panels. That may not mean a lot to an average consumer, but Solar Fred knows panels, and these brands are highly rated with a long track record. Same with the inverter. Xantrex is a very well known, quality brand.
• It costs you nothing to get a quote or for 1bog’s discounted pricing. Unlike Costco, Sam’s Club, or other group purchasing programs, 1bog’s big solar discount service is free. There’s no annual membership or hidden fees. Instead, 1bog collects a referral fee from Standard, who is happy to pay it for 1bog decreasing their marketing costs. So all in all, it’s a win-win-win for everyone.

Honest, this San Antonio program really is a great deal that’s difficult to match, but you can certainly do your own homework and try. Just keep in mind that you need to sign up for this program before April 23, 2010. If you miss that deadline, bummer, but sign up anyway, and 1bog will let you know when the next San Antonio campaign starts.

Any questions, please let us know, or check out 1bog’s San Antonio site for the full beef.

I’m moving to New Jersey just to buy homes and put solar on them. Seriously.

Published on March 2, 2010 by Dave Llorens.
Categories: New Jersey.

The Solar Situation

There’s a situation. With Solar. In New Jersey.

Did you know New Jersey is the #2 solar market in the US just behind California? Well, there’s a reason such a tiny state has more solar per capita than the best solar market in the United States. The reason is SRECs. SREC stands for “Solar Renewable Energy Credit.” They are a certificate for renewable energy production you can trade on the open market.

How do you get an SREC?

You own something that creates renewable energy. In this case, solar.  When your thing that you own that creates renewable energy pumps out 1mWh or 1000kWh (1000 kilowatt-hours) of juice (enough to power a big giant home for a month), you get one.

How much is an SREC worth?

At the moment, $700. Why you ask? Because if the utilities don’t meet their RPS standards, which they are not, they get ding’ed to the tune of $720. It makes sense then, that they’d be happy to buy your SREC’s for anything under $720, so it’s pretty easy to set the market rate for them. If they all the sudden start magically meeting their RPS standards, that could change, but for now, SRECs are a freaking gold mine for any homeowner who has a good roof setup in NJ.

Why is solar in NJ such a sick investment?

This is best shown with an image. Here is a financial breakdown of an example system estimate in New Jersey taken from 1BOG’s solar estimate tool (it only works where they have active solar group purchase campaigns).

In other words, the SRECs, which are money in your bank, are four times as valuable as the money you spent on the system in the first place. That DOESN’T EVEN INCLUDE your electrical savings. Yes, it’s crazy. Yes, I know it sounds too good to be true. I know, I know, I know. Believe me, I know. Most are skeptical, and yah sure there’s some fine print:

The Small Print – What’s the catch?

There’s not a REAL catch, it is actually a ridiculous investment where you get a free solar system that makes you money for 40 years. But here’s the small stuff you should know.

• The SREC incentives are so sick, that they state will try to keep you from gaming the system and installing a system in suboptimal conditions. You can only have the state rebate (which is currently $1,750 per DC kilowatt) if you have a roof situation that will be 90% efficient (good orientation and no shading). Some people who do not have this install systems anyway just to get the SRECs and abandon the state rebate)
• There is enough money for the state rebate at $1,750 per kW to last a few more months, then it drops to $1,550. That’s about a $1,400 decrease in rebates on the average sized system in NJ, so you better get moving.
• If the utilities all meet their RPS standards, albeit extremely unlikely, the SREC market could become volatile. They will still be worth considerable amounts of money, but they won’t have a clearly defined market value like the current penalty is pinning it to close to $720.
• SRECs are hard to trade personally, although there are some online tools coming about to help you do it. Most people sell them to aggregators (which the solar installers help you with). The aggregators of course take a cut, I think around 10%
• The utility penalty I talked about drops 3% a year, so expect SRECs to do something similar

If you live in New Jersey and you are interested in solar (hopefully you are now), sign up to find out if solar works on your home in New Jersey. There is currently a group purchase program in the north and there will be one coming soon in the south.

Bloom Energy vs Solar Power. And the winner is… both.

Published on February 23, 2010 by Tor a.k.a. "Solar Fred".
Categories: Affordable Solar, Los Angeles Solar, Solar Technology, Solar Trends.

Photo: Flickr/TheImpulsiveBuy

Everyone’s been emailing me about the recent 60 minutes report about Bloom Energy’s little silver box that will power a home for 3,000 bucks  in “5 to 10 years” and thus ruin the solar industry. Not quite. In fact, the two technologies go together like Beer and peanuts. I’ll explain why below, but first,  if you didn’t catch it on 60 Minutes, here it is:

So do fuel cells like Bloom Energy mean that solar is soon to be a dinosaur technology like coal powered plants? Not at all, and here’s a bunch of reasons why:

• First of all, as you’ll note in this brief report, a little Bloom box does not work by itself. It needs an outside fuel source. That fuel source can be fossil fuels like dirty coal or cleaner natural gas, or, as stated in this report at about 8 minutes in, renewable energy such as solar.
• Second, as noted in this report, the Bloom Box is still in its experimental phase. There are still kinks to be worked out, and there’s long term history to show that it will last 25 years. Solar has been around since the 1950’s and has a great, reliable track record.
• Solar is ready now, today. According this 60 minutes report, even if all the kinks were worked out, you’re still not going to see a Bloom box in your house for 5 to 10 years. Maybe longer.
• Solar, you can have tomorrow. Then, when and if the Bloom Energy box becomes available for your home or business, you can use your solar panels as the fuel source.
• Finally, if you wait for the Bloom Box, you’re going to continue polluting, as well as losing money to the ever rising utility rates. And what if 5 to 10 years from now, all of the Bloom boxes go bust for some unexpected reason, and they never develop a residential system? You’ve waited for nothing. You’ve lost 5 to 10 years of energy savings for well meaning, but failed device. Because there’s no question the solar will be there. The Bloom box…not so certain.

Honest, we want Bloom to succeed because it’s good for the planet, plus solar can be its fuel source. So, it’s a win-win. But as I said, solar is ready and available now. It’s also clean and affordable now, thanks to local and federal rebates.

Even better, check out if there’s a solar group purchasing program available in your area. Some of the latest ones are in Northern New Jersey, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Antonio, Texas.

Find out if solar is right for you now, then check out Bloom Energy later.

SPR Throws down the gauntlet: Time for a live Obama solar summit to explain the lack of solar panels on the White House

Published on February 21, 2010 by Tor a.k.a. "Solar Fred".
Categories: Environment, Help us, Municipal Financing.

LOS ANGELES. SolarPowerRocks.com, a solar blog and residential solar referral service, is offering to sit down with President Obama in a live television summit to discuss why solar panels have yet to be installed on the White House.

“We’ve tried to contact the White House about this issue, but for some reason they’ve ignored us and the two or three other people who’ve responded to our recent email campaign,” said SolarPowerRocks.com spokesperson, Tor Valenza, a.k.a. “Solar Fred.”

Solar Fred said that he realized that the Obama Administration appears to be attracted to live, on-camera debates, and so decided that offering to sit down live and on camera might be the carrot that the Administration has been waiting for.

“Let me be clear: We’re not laying down any pre-conditions to this summit,” said Solar Fred. “All options are on the table. We’re happy to talk to Obama about health care too, but getting solar back on the White House is really what we’re after. In fact, the public option is cool with us, so Obama will get a lot farther talking to us about health care than with Orrin Hatch. That’s for sure. Plus, we’ll bring beer.”

For such a pro-renewable energy White House, solar advocates like Solar Fred have long wondered why the White House has not immediately made plans to put solar electric and solar hot water systems back on the White House. President Carter installed solar hot water panels on the White House in the 1970’s, and then President Reagan subsequently took them off. In 2003, the National Parks Service installed solar on a White House maintenance shed during George “W” Bush’s tenure, but Solar Fred said that solar on a maintenance shed sends a terrible message to  America.

“Solar on a maintenance shed? Give me a break,” said Solar Fred. “That’s like telling the world that solar is only good for charging up the batteries for electric drills and secret service walkie-talkies. Solar photovoltaic technology and solar hot water are mature and affordable technologies today. Solar PV is currently powering the Space Station. Hello? Not to mention millions of homes and businesses throughout the world. It also happens to be a dominant power source for the entire parliament building in Germany. How embarrassing is that?”

Fred explained that  solar advocates are only asking that Obama offset at least the residential portion of the White House’s energy needs.

“We know the Capitol building is filled with too many coal and oil lobbyists to allow solar symbols of clean, renewable energy to be right over their heads. Heck, that would send the wrong message to those lobbyists, like ‘I’m retiring’ or ‘Please feel free to send gobs of money to my opponent,’” said Solar Fred.

Putting solar on the White House, Fred said, will bring attention to many consumers about important solar policies, such as net metering, and local solar rebates, as well as new types of financing, such as PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) programs, All are contributing to making solar affordable to home and business owners with little or no upfront costs.

Fred also stated that if the President doesn’t sit down with him in the White House for a live solar summit, then he will be forced to hold the live summit without Obama at a local bar.

“It will be embarrassing for the President if he doesn’t show, I know,” admitted Fred. “That’s why I’m giving him a chance on his own terms. And believe me, it will be far easier to sit down with me and a few beers to talk about solar (and health care if he insists) than to just talk about health care with Orin Hatch. I don’t think Senator Hatch even drinks beer, and voters should know that.”

About SolarPowerRocks.com

SolarPowerRocks.com is a solar blog and solar referral site founded in 2007 by Dan Hahn and Dave Llorens. Tor Valenza, aka “Solar Fred,” merged SolarFred.com with SolarPowerRocks.com in 2009, mainly due to their mutual love for finding simple, entertaining ways to educate consumers about solar technology, solar incentives, and solar financing. They also mutually enjoy beer.

Visit SolarPowerRocks.com for more information.

Below, a little history of what happened to the solar panels that used to be on the roof of the White House.

Hey, White House! Where’s the Solar PV?

Published on February 16, 2010 by Tor a.k.a. "Solar Fred".
Categories: Uncategorized.

Please go solar and walk me (not necessarily in that order.)

At SolarPowerRocks.com, our mission is to educate you about solar power rebates and incentives and to encourage you to find out if solar makes financial sense for you.

However, we can educate you until the cows come home, except we don’t have any cows. Plus, there’s nothing like a role model like the President of the United States (or Oprah) to help people to see that solar technology is ready for prime time and makes financial sense.

That’s why we’re making this pathetic and desperate grass roots appeal to President Obama to get some solar panels on the White House again. I hope you’ll join me in sending the President the message below.

Simply copy and paste the text and insert into the president’s email form here. If you’re afraid of email forms, you can directly email our Nobel Prize winning Energy Secretary Stephen Chu at The.Secretary@hq.doe.gov. If you’re on Twitter, why, you can tweet this post to the @whitehouse and to the president’s official spokes-dude, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.  Alternatively, you can tweet this post to Oprah, because she’s a super power too.

Remember, that these people are usually ignoring you distracted, so the more you spread the word, the more it feels like November gets their attention.

As for the letter, I’m purposely going to make this appeal a little quirky and funny, because doing the same old yada, yada, yada bull earnest appeal usually goes into a yada, yada, yada same old bull concerned advocate pile.  Okay? Okay! Here goes. (Oh, and don’t forget to share this post with your friends, family, and pets on Facebook, etc. too.)

Email this part:

RE: Solar, White House, and Bo

Dear Mr. President and Energy Secretary Chu,

Dudes! What’s with the delay of getting solar panels back on the White House?

As you know, your predecessor, President Jimmy Carter, put solar hot water on the Presidential homestead in the 1970’s, but then President Ronald Reagan thought they were unsightly and distasteful to the oil, gas, and coal lobbyists and ripped them off. Bummer, because those panels would still be working and saving tax dollars today.

Now, I know, ironically, that oil man President Bush (Yes, “W.”) allowed the National Park Service to put a solar PV system on a White House maintenance shed, but that’s not, you know, The White House. Frankly, I’m not sure what color that maintenance shed is, LOL! But I digress. A-hem.

The point is, Mr. President, that America needs you to lead by solar example. Could you please at least offset the residential portion of the White House with a solar electric and solar hot water system? There would be so many benefits to this.

As Energy Secretary Chu will tell you, putting up solar panels with today’s “smart” monitoring technology will allow you to show the public a real-time website with the residential White House energy savings and reduced CO2 emissions. You might also inspire more people to take advantage of the 30% solar Federal tax credit and new Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing programs. This, in turn, will inspire me, a lowly registered voter in a battleground state. Not that you should pander to us voters, but isn’t going solar the right thing to do anyway?

So, please go solar, Mr. President; and as a side note, don’t forget to walk Bo.

Respectfully wanting you to lead,

Your name,
City and State.

Vote Solar Sharing Solar Luv for Valentines Day

Published on February 12, 2010 by Tor a.k.a. "Solar Fred".
Categories: Uncategorized.

Our friends at votesolar.org just made this solar Valentines Day video. It pairs nicely with our recent post about the 5 reasons why solar could be sexy to women.

Enjoy them both with a box of chocolate, roses, champagne…or beer. And please feel free to share your solar powered relationship/metaphor thoughts in the comments section below.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

San Francisco Picks up the Solar PACE

Published on by Tor a.k.a. "Solar Fred".
Categories: Affordable Solar, Municipal Financing, Solar State Incentives, pg&e, san francisco.

Photo:Flickr/David Paul Ohmer

Once again, the City of San Francisco is rocking for solar and energy efficiency. This time it’s all about a new solar and energy efficiency financing program they’re calling GreenFinanceSF, but what many know as municipal financing or “PACE.”

So what’s it all about?

PACE stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy. Essentially, it’s a new way of financing solar and other energy efficiency projects with no upfront costs to the home owner.

Instead of a second mortgage, the city finances your solar project with a relatively low interest bond. To pay that money back, your property gets a special property tax assessment with payments spread out over 20 years.

Advantages

• No upfront costs for your solar system and energy efficiency upgrades.
• Because it’s a special tax assessment specifically on your home, there’s no “loan” to pay back if you move in a few years. Instead, the new home owner takes over the tax payment—and also gets all of the benefits of your upgrades.
• Just like a conventional mortgage loan, you still get to write off the tax assessment’s interest from your Federal Taxes.
• It’s a 20 year payback period, so that can make payments lower than your current pre-PACE electric bill.
• You still qualify for San Francisco’s Solar Energy Incentive Program, which gives you $1000-$7,000 depending on your income and if you use a local solar installer.
• You still qualify for the California rebate, which can get you an extra $4,400 for a typical 4kW system.
• You still qualify for the Federal 30% Investment Tax Credit.
• You still qualify for California’s new Net Metering program.
• Your neighbors cannot shake a finger at you for raising their electric rates to subsidize your solar system. That’s because PACE/ GreenFinanceSF is funded by a bond tied to your property taxes alone. They’ve got nothing to do with it…unless they sign up for their own program.

So what’s the downside?

Wait a minute….I’m thinking. ….Still thinking. Bullet point is forming now…….Okay, it’s a stretch, but here it is.

Disadvantages (Sort of)

• The other qualification for GreenFinanceSF is that you have to get an energy efficiency audit and do the recommended upgrades.
• That’s actually not a bad thing, because in the short run, it’s going to save you money through lower electric bills, and a smaller solar system.
• You still have to have decent credit; somewhere in the mid 600’s for a credit score should do fine.

Getting Started

That’s the news, San Francisco. So where do you start? Well, you have to do the energy efficiency audit first to qualify. Check out our partners at One Block off the Grid, aka “1bog.org.”

1bog.org pre-negotiates a discount with bulk pricing for people who sign up for energy efficiency and/or solar. It’s sort of like Costco for solar and energy efficiency upgrades, except there’s no dues or fees ever for consumers, and there’s no annoying club cards.

1bog also has a free, no obligation solar estimate calculator. Try it and see if solar makes sense for you.  It’s free, so couldn’t hurt, except a little time. Worst case, you’ll get a quick answer about how much solar could costs for you.

Thanks for considering solar, San Francisco! You rock for the environment, but  you knew that.

Take 2 Minutes to Ensure Affordable Solar in California

Published on February 3, 2010 by Tor a.k.a. "Solar Fred".
Categories: Solar Trends.

If you’re from California and came to this website looking for answers about solar power and its costs, you’ve come to the right place. Except there’s a problem, and there’s something you can do about it.

The Problem: Net metering is about to be taken away from Californians. We’ve explained net metering here, but essentially it means that your utility is required to keep track of the extra power your solar panels produce during the day. Then, at night when the sun isn’t shining, the utility credits your electric bill for any extra power your panels produced. It’s like having a virtual battery.  Great, right?

Except for one thing. California law says that a utility can stop giving customers net metering after solar customers are generating 2.5% of the utility’s energy. And if you live in San Francisco and San Diego, they’re almost to that tiny limit.

So what does that mean? If the limit isn’t raised through a new law, AB 510, it means that you won’t benefit from net metering. And without net metering, solar will have a much slower payback time for you, and you might not go solar or you’ll get a lot less solar. That could kill a lot of green jobs, not to mention make us all more dependent on dirty, coal fired electric plants.

Obviously, we’re solar advocates and we want all Californians to have affordable solar and to be able to keep their solar independence. Other states don’t have these tiny caps, so why should California?

The Solution: Take two minutes to tell your state legislators that you want the net metering cap raised. It’s so simple. That’s a link to votesolar.org. Click on that link, and you’ll fill out a pre-written form that will tell your very own lawmakers that you want your net metering and that they should vote for AB 510.

Please do it right now. Time is short. The vote is on Thursday, February 4th,Update: February 11th, 2010.

Update: We did it!….So far. Net metering has passed the State Senate by a pretty good margin. Now it’s up to the Assembly and the Governator. Keep up the pressure, California! If you haven’t gone to the above votesolar.org site, please do and please share with your other California friends through email, Face Book, Twitter, etc.

Thanks for taking the time. You rock for solar, California!

The Current Price of Solar Rebates in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego

Published on February 2, 2010 by Tor a.k.a. "Solar Fred".
Categories: Solar Trends.

Solar Money Bags

Hello, and welcome to California Solar Rebates 101. We’re going to keep it so simple, because, heck, we know you’re busy and you just want the bottom line. But before you skip down there, understand this:

• Installation prices are falling, but so are the California subsidies.
• The rebate cash you’ll receive depends on your utility and how many of people have already gone solar.
• The more people go solar within a particular utility, the rebate goes to a lower “step.”
• In Los Angeles, for example, the rebate for an average 4kW solar system is still high because few people have gone solar. In San Francisco, the rebate cash is low because lots of people have gone solar.
• The good news is that the net cost of solar is about the same price, but it’s just not as subsidized in San Francisco.
• Why? Because competition is making solar cheaper in San Francisco and installers are bringing down prices.
• End of lesson

And now for the Bottom Line:

Below is the cash rebate that you can expect right now if you buy an average 4kW solar system. Keep in mind that you may need a smaller–or larger–system for your electricity needs. We’re talking average. If you want a more exact estimate, you can get a free online anonymous estimate from 1bog.org. They’ve got a nifty group purchasing program that makes solar even cheaper, especially in California.

Notes:

• Remember that your city may also have extra rebates, such as San Francisco.
• Also, everyone in America gets a 30% Federal Tax Credit on top of every local rebate.
• You may also benefit from other incentives such as net metering, time of use (TOU),  tiered rates, and a new feed-in tariff.
• Go solar sooner rather than later.