Full transcript
0:00Changes in federal renewable energy
0:02policy are having some big impacts on
0:04the state's solar industry. Kevin
0:06McCallum at 7 days. You looked into
0:08this. What are the changes and how are
0:10solar installers responding?
0:13>> Uh well, there are two major changes to
0:15federal policy in Vermont that are
0:17having pretty big impacts on solar
0:19installers as you say in the state. One
0:22is the uh upcoming change in the 30%
0:26federal income tax uh exemption. So, um,
0:29currently, uh, if you get a solar
0:31installation on your home, you can write
0:33off about, um, you know, in many cases
0:35about $10,000 worth of the worth of that
0:38installation's cost. That's going away
0:40at the end of the year. And solar
0:42installers are a little bit worried that
0:43that could prove to be a hit to future
0:45business. And the other big change is a
0:48$62 million grant that the state had
0:51received called solar for all, which was
0:53designed to make sure that lower income
0:56people had a way to participate in in
0:58solar and benefit from the lower costs
1:00that solar often uh is when it comes to
1:03uh electricity rates. And that grant was
1:07eliminated by the federal government. It
1:08was actually clawed back from the state
1:10of Vermont. So those two things are
1:12causing some turmoil in the industry
1:13right now. You know, I see a lot of
1:15these ads, a lot of folks at home
1:16probably do as well, urging people to go
1:19solar right now before the credits go
1:22away. Are these having an effect at all?
1:25>> They absolutely are. So, you're right,
1:26Darren, that those ads are everywhere.
1:28You see people urging folks to to get in
1:31now to apply before the end of the year.
1:33And that is having a huge impact because
1:35for the last several months, people have
1:36been getting that message. They've been
1:38reaching out to solar installers and
1:40they've been asking them, can you please
1:41get an installation on my home before
1:44the end of the year and the solar
1:46installers have been pushing that in
1:47their marketing and sales uh efforts as
1:49well. So many of the solar installers
1:50that I spoke with said that they are
1:52actually booked up all the way through
1:54the end of the year and that there's
1:56very few solar installers that have any
1:59space in the schedule to fit in anyone
2:01between now and the end of the year. So
2:02it's actually in a weird way kind of
2:04boom times for solar right now. they
2:06have all the work that they can handle.
2:07>> And what about after that? How's the
2:09outlook?
2:11>> Right. Well, that's the problem is that
2:13once this big push of new projects and
2:16people uh trying to get in under the
2:18wire is over at the end of the year,
2:20there's real concern among the solar
2:22installers that the financial incentives
2:25that have been in place for a long, long
2:27time, once they go away, that many
2:29homeowners will no longer feel
2:31comfortable signing up for solar. And so
2:34it's causing a lot of anxiety right now
2:36in the industry and making them sort of
2:39rethink their business strategies a
2:41little bit like maybe there's a way we
2:42can continue to interest people in solar
2:45but only maybe if we for example lease
2:47them the system instead of having them
2:49uh buy the system which would still
2:52maybe preserve some of those tax
2:53credits. So lots of changes in the
2:55industry right now.
2:55>> Your stories out in seven days now.
2:57Kevin McCllum, thank you. Be well.
2:59Thanks D.