Solar panelling so popular now, customers aren’t waiting for rebate

By Collin Gallant on April 27, 2018.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant

It only took three months for a pot of money to help city power customers install solar panels to be completely spoken for, officials announced last week.

Local contractors however, say interest in adding solar arrays is growing so fast that some customers are going ahead without guarantee of a municipal subsidy that would be paid on top of provincial rebates

“We’re expecting a banner year,” said Marcus Campbell of panel installation contractor Terralta Inc. “People are very interested in becoming energy independent … and people are willing to move ahead with only the (Alberta) energy efficiency grants.”

Campbell also says beyond a higher number of projects, the proposals are for systems twice as large as they were several years ago.

For years the biggest consideration about adding solar panels revolved on the timeline for potentially paying off an initial capital investment with savings from lower energy costs.

Over the years the city’s HatSmart energy savings initiative has offered money to offset the costs and therefore speed up the payback. This year it put $80,000 towards the effort, meaning 16 applications could earn the maximum of a $5,000 rebate.

This year however, customers can dually apply for a grant from the Alberta Energy Efficiency agency that offer up to an additional $10,000 maximum rebate, or 30 per cent of the project cost, whichever is less.

City officials told the utility committee on April 19 that they weren’t surprised the whole $80,000 was spoken for with applications up to the end of March.

However, Campbell said his customers are still approving work knowing only the Alberta grant may be applied.

“We have people who are saying lets go ahead and hope their (HatSmart) application is accepted,” said Campbell “Even if not, the money from Energy Efficiency Alberta is pretty significant.”

HatSmart allots money on a first-come, first-served basis, reserving money once an application is filed, but it isn’t paid out until the work is complete and certified after receipts are submitted.

Interested citizens who are having work done should still apply in case approved projects fall off the list, aren’t completed, or more money is allotted, as has been done in previous years.

Councillors on the committee however, said they aren’t willing at this point to shuffle money from less popular to more popular facets of the program, or add more money generally.

Utility committee vice-chair Coun. Jamie McIntosh said it is important to let the application process play out, and see what the interest level is in several other rebate areas.

Officials also report that there has been about 50 per cent uptake on a separate HatSmart grant local builders can use to rebate portions of construction costs is federal energy efficiency standards are met.

A program that gives partial rebate on high efficiency clothes dryers (the province offers a rebate on washing machines — has only seen 10 per cent uptake.

18
-17

Comments are closed.