Apparently, things are changing.
I recently sized a 4kW system at $44,915. Certainly a tough nut to swallow. Here’s the real eye opener…
If the project is NYSERDA eligible, i.e. passes the shade test which is not less that 10% shading, appropriate orientation etc. New York State will kick in $3 per watt up to 4kW and $2 per watt up to 4kW after that for residential. That’s $12,000 off the top passed along to the customer immediately.
Additionally 30% can be taken off the purchase price (not the aforementioned NYSERDA price) through the stimulus package (the $2,000 cap is gone). That’s an additional $13,200 tax credit.
Finally, New York State will allow for a $5,000 tax credit.
Total for everything is $30,200 in tax incentives and credits.
The customer would actually wind up spending, after all is said and done, $14,500. The ROI (Return On Investment) is somewhere between 7 – 10 years. So if they plan on staying in the house longer than that, they get all their money back.
I was shocked. You would typically spend twice that for a car.
Tuesday night I got a call from Michelle Kaufmann, AIA, LEED AP, with the “sad news,” as she called it, that her company was closing up shop. Sad news, indeed. Michelle Kaufmann Designs was residential architect magazine’s Top Firm for 2008. How quickly businesses can unravel in this economy. The very attributes that set Michelle’s company apart from so many residential design firms—big dreams, big talent, big moves, big risk taking—are what also made it vulnerable when big problems occurred in the banking and home building industries.
My friend Michael, a solar power expert, was sharing some of his knowledge with me last week. I told him that most of my clients are VERY interested in photovoltaic (PV) panels, but the prohibitive cost has always cut them from our projects.
