Pennsylvania Solar Incentives

Currently
If you live in the state of Pennsylvania, the solar incentives just got quite a bit better for you. In fact, for residential homeowners, there was pretty much nothing at all for quite some time up until about a few months ago when the state legislature finally got on board with pulling the trigger on what is called the sunshine state program. Below are the details of the program from the dsireusa.org website. The bottomline is this, if you have no shading from trees on your property, you are going to be eligible for a nice state incentive of about $2.25/watt DC. Since solar systems currently run about $7.00/watt this comes out to around 25% of the system cost.(which is considerable). On top of that there is the 30% federal tax credit that you are going to be eligible for too.

Summary:
The Pennsylvania Sunshine program offers rebates to residential and small commercial residents that install photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal. It was authorized in July 2008 by the state legislature and began accepting applications in May 2009 under the administration of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Only systems installed after the date of program opening are eligible for rebates. A total of $100 million (funded through state bonds) is available for rebates over the lifetime of the program. The DEP expects the program to last a total of three to four years.
All residential applicants must be Pennsylvania residents, own the home upon which the system is installed, and use it as a primary residence (i.e., vacation homes and investment properties do not qualify for residential rebates). Small business applicants must be for-profit entities located within the state of Pennsylvania with no more than 100 full-time employees. This definition includes producers of an agricultural commodity. Low-income residents (60% or less of median state income) are eligible for higher incentives than other applicants.
It is important to note that residents and small businesses do not submit incentive applications themselves. Applications must be submitted on behalf of the applicant by an approved installer. Households are eligible for only one PV and one solar thermal rebate. Small businesses may receive multiple rebates, but are only permitted to submit one PV application and one solar thermal application at a time and must complete the project and rebate process prior to submitting another application.
The program is set up to provide rebates that decline over time as certain benchmarks, or “steps”, of installed capacity are reached. The residential and small business portions are assigned separate incentive schedules for PV rebates, but the schedules are combined for solar thermal installations. Each residential PV step contains 10 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity, while each small business PV step contains 5 MW of installed capacity. Solar thermal incentives will be stepped down at intervals of 1,500 installed systems. The program website will contain a tally of installed projects to inform homeowners and installers of the incentive status.
The list below describes incentive levels and other program rules as they stood at the date of program opening.
* Residential PV: $2.25/W for systems of 1-10 kilowatts (kW). Systems larger than 10 kW are eligible, but incentives are limited to first 10 kW
* Small Business PV: $2.25/W for systems of 3-10 kW; $2.00/W for next 90 kW; and $1.75/W for next 100 kW. Systems larger than 200 kW are eligible, but incentives are limited to first 200 kW
* Solar Thermal: 25% of installed system cost, with maximums of $2,000 for residences and $20,000 for small businesses
* Low-Income (PV and Solar Thermal): 35% of installed costs (the maximum rebate authorized by the enabling legislation)
All work must be performed by approved installers (see list on program website), and systems are subject to a variety of equipment and installation requirements. The application procedures generally require that systems be grid-connected, but exceptions to this requirement may be granted by the DEP on a case-by-case basis at the applicant’s request. The program also has provisions for system inspections and performance reporting. Ownership of renewable energy credits (RECs) or other environmental attributes produced by rebated systems is not addressed in the program rules; however, Pennsylvania’s net metering rules grant the customer-generator title RECs generated by net metered systems unless the customer assigns them to another entity or specifically rejects ownership.
The program will not cover costs associated with roof repair or battery back-up systems. Please consult the program guidelines or contact the DEP for further program details.

Here are some guidelines to look at in terms of what you can expect on the production from a 4kw system.  (That means 4 kilo watt system) The scenarios below vary a little because the amount of sunlight is a tiny bit different in different locations.

In Pittsburgh, a 4kw solar system is expected to produce about 4395 kwh of electricity per year. If the average cost is about $.096/kwh, that equates to about $422/year in electric bill savings.

In Erie, a 4kw solar system is expected to produce about 4465 kwh of electricity per year. If the average cost is about $.096/kwh, that equates to about $429/year in electric bill savings.

In Williamsport, a 4kw solar system is expected to produce about 4419 kwh of electricity per year. If the average cost is about $.096/kwh, that equates to about $424/year in electric bill savings.

In Allentown, a 4kw solar system is expected to produce about 4737 kwh of electricity per year. If the average cost is about $.096/kwh, that equates to about $455/year in electric bill savings.

In Philadelphia, a 4kw solar system is expected to produce about 4824 kwh of electricity per year. If the average cost is about $.096/kwh, that equates to about $463/year in electric bill savings.