The statewide program to increase home solar panel installations is thriving in Fairfield County.
Solarize Connecticut recently launched its latest 20-week campaign in Stamford to get more residents to purchase and install solar panels onto their homes.
The program offers a 20-percent-off discount for installations in addition to state-sponsored financing programs to eliminate up-front cost barriers.
By state mandate, the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority (CEFIA), which runs the Solarize programs, must support 30 new megawatts of residential solar by the end of 2022. So far it has already approved 15 MW in less than two years.
“It”™s a great opportunity for residents to go solar and start saving on their electrical bills immediately,” said Bob Wall, a CEFIA associate director of outreach.
Residents typically pay $4.50 per watt for solar energy on the solar marketplace if they don”™t have solar panels. If they do install the panels, however, they”™re electric bill could be as low as $16 ”” to cover the monthly service fee ”” if no other energy is needed beyond what the house generates. If a home generates more energy than it needs, utility companies provide a credit.
Of the municipalities to participate in the roughly 1-year-old program, each has more than doubled the total number of solar systems previously existing.
Residents in Fairfield and Westport, two the first four towns to host a Solarize campaign, respectively added 73 and 51 solar installations by the end of the 20-week campaigns.
Similar programs have also recently launched in Easton, Redding, Trumbull, Newtown and Greenwich.
“You can see how this dramatically scales up the adoption of solar in the state,” Wall said. “The goal, ultimately, is to offer this to more and more communities and reduce the energy output and resources required to generate electricity.”
By hosting the 20-week, group-buying campaigns, the installers are able to offer lower prices than is typical, Wall said. However buying a solar system isn”™t cheap. Even after the total price of the system is reduced by up to 20 percent through the program and state and federal incentives are applied, the typical out-of-pocket expense is $10,000 on a 7 kilowatt solar system.
To ease the burden, CEFIA offers two loan products: one with no money down and another with a down-payment option. There are also leasing opportunities with a lower long-term return.
It”™s an investment, but likely one of the cheaper opportunities that will pop up, Wall said. The discounts and incentives will likely decrease next year.
Residents in the Fairfield County towns currently hosting campaigns will have until February or April to sign up for a system. Until then, the campaigns will be hosting workshops and meetings to answer residents”™ questions about the systems and how they work.
Throughout the state, roughly 450 customers have purchased an installation through the completed campaigns.
Residents typically pay $4.50 per watt for solar energy on the solar marketplace if they don”™t have solar panels. If they do install the panels, however, they”™re electric bill could be as low as $16 ”” to cover the monthly service fee ”” if no other energy is needed beyond what the house generates.
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