Thoughts on Solar by Run on Sun's Founder & CEO, Jim Jenal

While we weren’t watching, the folks at Burbank Water & Power (BWP) pulled the plug on their solar rebate program, continuing the trend of on-again/off-again solar rebate programs at Southern California municipal utilities which has also included LADWP and Glendale Water & Power in the past year. Of the local munis, only Pasadena Water & Power has managed their program without interruption.

Here is the announcement from BWP’s website:

Due to the overwhelming success of the BWP Solar Support Rebate program and budgetary restrictions, effective April 21^st 2011 the program has been suspended.  Only those rebate applications in the on-line software PowerClerk with a status of “Confirmed Reservation” will be paid.  These payments will be made when all remaining documentation is provided, but no sooner than July 1, 2011.  All other solar rebate applications will be canceled and paperwork mailed back to the installer.  Please check back to this web site in the spring of 2012 for a possible update.  Solar Installers with customers that wish to proceed without a solar rebate should contact the program manager at solarsupport@ci.burbank.ca.us for details about the Solar Interconnection Agreement and other requirements.

Pardon us for a contrarian view, but when you have to suspend your program mid-year, it isn’t an “overwhelming success” — it is mismanaged.

Potential solar clients and solar companies alike need predictability - not programs that can simply disappear without prior notice.

Which brings us to another curious thing about this website announcement - it says that the effective date for the program suspension was April 21, 2011 but the earliest public disclosure that we can find about the change is this article in the local newspaper, the Burbank Leader, titled “Burbank Officials Suspend Solar Rebate Program,” dated August 30!  Now it is true that we do not monitor the BWP website on a daily basis, but it stands to reason that if this suspension had been announced earlier, we would be able to find some notice of it online before August 30 - four months after the suspension date! (Interestingly, the last press release displayed on the BWP website is from April 22 but it says nothing about the suspension.)

If that timing is accurate, it means that solar companies could have been devoting time and resources in a tight economy to developing business in Burbank for a third of a year, only to have that expenditure rendered largely useless at the caprice of another muni utility that cannot manage its budget.