During the past three years, solar energy has blossomed in Pennsylvania, creating a green sustainable energy source and new jobs, but a hiccup in the state requirements could have a detrimental effect on the industry.
The Pennsylvania solar industry exploded when state tax incentives were initiated in 2009, called the PA Sunshine Program combined with the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act enacted in 2004, also known as the AEPS Act.
The PA Sunshine Program, a four-tiered rebate program, is designed to be an incentive for residential and small commercial business to install solar panels.
“Currently we are in the fourth tier,” said Mike Pitcavage, president of Endless Mountain Solar in Wilkes-Barre. “The Sunshine Program is estimated to end late this summer.”
Under the AEPS Act, utility companies are required to purchase a growing percentage of electricity generated by solar facilities, called solar renewable energy credits. The goal is to reach .5 percent of electricity produced by solar energy by 2020.
Solar Renewable Energy Credit, or SREC, is one megawatt of power generated by a solar facility. Businesses and homeowners can increase the return on their solar panels by selling excess SRECs to electric companies.
According to Vote Solar, a nonprofit solar advocacy group, there are about 71 megawatts of solar energy being generated in Pennsylvania. This is enough to satisfy the state’s solar requirements over the next three years, said Pitcavage.
“It is basic economics, supply and demand,” Pitcavage said.
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