PG&E Solar Rebate Flatlines Just as Average Homeowner Hears About it

As a solar sales rep for the past 2 years I can tell you that PG&E has done a great job of funding the rebates in a timely manner. I have been selling 8 to 9 systems in PG&E territory per month for the past 2 years. The rebates were always scheduled to go down. This isn’t PG&Es fault, this is a scheduled drop based on how much the state of California was willing to fund. Most people in the solar industry have been diligently on the phone talking to people, but only about 5% of homeowners we talk to either qualify for solar or are even interested.

Susan:

In the Desert area of Palm Springs where I work and are involved in Wind and Solar (now), there is considerable competition and advertisement to the public about the CSI rebate structure (mostly its benefits) both through the old MSM (newspapers ,radio, billboards and TV) and on the internet. These advertisements are slightly less in number in the Los Angeles area but nevertheless they are all around. The main problem seen down here is ensuring enough up front available financing is in place to await the state CSI and federal rebates coming in after paperwork is filled out. The more astute businesses installing and selling solar are getting the Chinese (who tend to provide the panels) to front the financing on the front end with some equity position on the backend. CSI rebates after about what appears is a long time but is really short is finally coming in at 90-120 days and the feds have finally started paying at 90-120 days also. The Fed Audit dept of the Inspector General for the Treasury just came out to do the first audits of installations (to ensure they were actually installed) in the Inland empire. As usual it appears a bureaucracy created (either by the State or Feds) to cover something took a while to get off the ground. The feds that we saw hinted they would have been here sooner and the process might have been smoother and quicker but they had rules requiring them to draft regulations that they did not have in place before moving forward. It must be said its not SOCAL Edison that is leading the charge here in SOCAL for any rebates or advertisement of rebates, its the private entrepreneur that is in business to make money from solar installations and/or leasing arrangements. I am not sure you can really count on the Utility (SOCAL ED or PG&E) to take the lead if for instance someone like SOCAL Edison here is more hyped on their larger 100+MW rooftop projects in the Inland Empire than smaller installations not owned by them. Whether you agree with what PG&E does in terms of count against Step 7 or Step 8, what do the rules for the Legislation say for CSI, they are probably written to give PG&E the right to reconfigure the way they wish. As a side note, someones interest in solar panel installations (whether on a business or home) comes more from seeing an actual installation in ones neighborhood or on a colleagues business and then asking how one can do it also. This seems to be what we see playing out regardless of any advertisements on either the MSM or internet. Who will pay for your Walter Cronkite expansion of information Susan?? If it’s not written into the legislation and funded (oh, yes we do have a funding problem and budget problem in Taxifornia) who will do it but the entreprenuer who can make money from the installations. Those entreprenuers tend to be area or regional focused expect for a few very large ones who are using the MSM and new media for dessimination of their message.