New Solar Initiatives in NY and CA Could Drive Solar Sales Higher

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September 13, 2016 | By RGR Marketing Blog

What New Solar Initiatives Could Mean For Your Business

Solar energy may only lay claim to a small portion of total U.S. total energy consumption, but that slice of the pie is growing all the time. For those concerned about climate change, solar’s market share can’t grow fast enough.

New solar initiatives in New York and California are driving solar growth and making solar energy even more attractive. Let’s take a closer look at these solar programs, and how they’re boosting solar adoption in these influential markets.

California’s New Solar Homes Partnership

The New Solar Homes Partnership program is a component of the broad and ambitious California Solar Initiative. The CSI originally launched in 2007, and has a state goal of installing 360 megawatts of new solar PV capacity in the Golden State over the next decade. By 2020, the aim is for half of all new homes be solar-equipped. At the beginning of this year, the program had already funded nearly 142 MW of new residential solar, and that number has grown considerably since then.

Back to the New Solar Homes Partnership – the NHSP’s architects saw new home construction as an opportunity to drive solar growth. By incorporating solar into the build process, installation costs are lowered. There’s no need to retrofit solar when homes are designed and built with solar in mind, and solar is installed by default, just like plumbing and electrical systems are.

To encourage more builders to incorporate solar into new projects, the NSHP offers performance-based incentives for systems up to 7.5 kW in size. Higher incentives are offered for affordable housing construction and high-efficiency buildings.

So how effective is this program? Well, several major home builders now offer solar as a standard feature, and more than 20,000 systems have already been installed under the initiative, with nearly 30,000 more in development. Not only that, but the new home solar penetration rate has gone from a paltry 1% at the beginning of the program to 20% and growing.

New York’s NY-Sun

Solar energy is a solution whose time has come, but there’s no denying that government subsidies have played a major role in spurring solar’s impressive growth rate. Some have questioned whether or not the solar industry will be able to continue its rise after the sun has set on those generous state and federal incentives. The NY-Sun program is helping to make the dream of a self-sustaining solar industry a reality.

NY-Sun takes a multifaceted approach to accomplishing this goal. The Megawatt Block incentive structure subsidizes solar installation and makes it easy for potential solar customers to research the incentives available in their areas.

The Affordable Solar component provides double incentives and affordable financing for low and middle-income homeowners, driving solar adoption in a traditionally underserved market that stands to reap great benefits from affordable, sustainable energy.

NY-Sun’s K-Solar initiative provides technical assistance and group purchasing to the public schools of New York State, and the Solarize program offers the same aggregate buying power to homes and businesses. The programs are designed to reduce the soft costs associated with going solar.

Finally, the PV Trainers network offers solar education and tools to local policymakers – the more they understand about solar and how it can benefit their communities, the more likely they’ll be to tailor public policy to encourage and expedite solar adoption.

The NY-Sun’s multi-pronged approach to solar seems to be paying sizable dividends. New York’s solar growth is has outpaced the national growth rate for solar energy for the past two years. Last year alone, the total number of New York solar installations grew by more than 60%. 2016 is shaping up to be another banner year – projects currently slated for completion will more than double the state’s total PV capacity.

A Sign of Things to Come

Clearly, California and New York’s forward-thinking solar initiatives are a boon for solar installers in those states, but what if your market lies elsewhere? Well, you stand to benefit from these incentives too, just maybe not as immediately.

NY and CA have long been seen as bellwethers – not just culturally, but also in the realm of energy policy. When lawmakers from other states witness the economic gains and environmental benefits brought on by bold solar legislation in trendsetting states, it seems a foregone conclusion that they’ll try to duplicate those successes at home.

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What New Solar Initiatives Could Mean For Your Business

California’s New Solar Homes Partnership

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A Sign of Things to Come

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What New Solar Initiatives Could Mean For Your Business

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A Sign of Things to Come

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