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

We posted the other day about the sudden suspension of residential solar rebates at GWP, effective July 27, 2010. Today we can report that the suspension goes much farther. According to Ani Zargaryan, Solar Solutions Program coordinator at GWP, rebates for commercial solar power projects are suspended for five years! Ms. Zargaryan confirmed that there were no press reports about this drastic change in GWP's solar program and there was no advance notice provided. Instead, an email was sent to solar contractors who had pending applications on file with GWP on August 5, after the cutoff had already been established.

Apparently, GWP looked at their budget, and the number of applications in hand and said, "Oops, we're out of money!" With all due respect to the good folks at GWP, how can that possibly happen with no advance notice?  GWP had previously published on their website their anticipated rebate amounts through 2012 and they were some of the highest in the State. Unlike most other utility rebate programs where incentive payments are stepped-down based on actual amounts installed (thereby allowing for reasonable planning predictions - if more gets installed faster, the rebate simply steps down sooner), the GWP program structure either had to count on low demand or an unlimited pot of money.  Turns out, neither was the case.

Lack of predictability is a terrible thing in any marketplace and GWP's abrupt suspension of its program is leaving customers - and installers - in the lurch. Odd that absolutely no one other than this blog is writing about this. As always, we will update this story if we learn anything more.