PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Connecticut adds residential PV rebates to commercial incentives

The Northeast state of Connecticut began its first residential PV rebate program on Oct. 1. The state has put up $1.8 million, which will be used to offer state residents a $5 per W incentive for systems capped at 5 kW. The money, which is being administered by the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF), is limited to $25,000 per applicant.

	© Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF)
The 23.1 kW PV system on Connecticut Transit's maintenance garage in Hartford was partially funded by the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund.

According to Charlie Moret, managing director of CCEF investments, the state has allocated another $200,000 for low-income housing. He expects the money will be enough for about 400 kW of PV installations. If all the funding is used up before the end of the three-year program, he says the state will consider adding more money. »The CCEF board is very favorable toward installing solar PV capacity,« says Moret.

CCEF has approved eight qualified installers so far, who will also be responsible for handling all of the application paperwork. After the first $500,000 of the incentives has been used, CCEF will evaluate the work of the installers and consider adding new ones.

The residential program is in addition to a $3 million program which CCEF set up for commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings in 2002 on a request-for-proposal basis, but was changed to an open-enrollment procedure at the start of 2004 (see PI 2/2004, p. 20). Originally intended for systems between 5 and 40 kW, Moret says the upper-end cap has been removed, with the hope that it will lead to 600 kW of installations. Combined with the residential program, Moret thinks the CCEF should be responsible for an extra 1 MW of installed PV capacity in Connecticut by 2007. »By combining the residential and commercial programs, we will create better market awareness and bring more activity to the state,« says Moret, who expected the first residential system to be installed by the end of October.