Solar installations plummet as LIPA rebate ends

On a summerlike autumn day last week, Keith and Bradlee Curtain hefted door-size solar panels onto the steep roof of a house in Setauket, the latest in a string of jobs fed by a bustling industry on Long Island: solar energy.

But the job is expected to be one of their last this year, as rebates provided by the Long Island Power Authority that have driven the solar market to record installations have ended for 2010. "It hurts," Keith Curtain, an installer for KPS Contracting in Bay Shore, called down from the roof, adding that he has just one other job lined up. "You've got to find other [non-solar] work."

Three weeks after LIPA suspended its solar rebate program because the money ran out, the industry that has built up around it is in limbo. LIPA's total rebate budget last year was approximately $22 million. Rebates, which have offset a third to more than half the $20,000-$60,000 cost of typical residential systems, have been the major engine for the solar industry on Long Island, funding more than 3,000 home solar systems since 2000, when the program began. Mike Deering, LIPA's vice president of environmental affairs, said it was unlikely funding would materialize before year's end, though the program will restart in January.

Assemb. Marc Alessi (D-Wading River) has asked Gov. David A. Paterson to release $6 million to $10 million in state funding set aside to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to fund the LIPA program through the end of the year. Thus far, Paterson has not acted on the request.

Top solar installers say customers will not commit to new systems until they can be assured that LIPA will help pay for them. LIPA has not determined the size of its rebate budget for next year, officials said.

"Thus far the sales are zero," said Marc Clejan, chief executive of Greenlogic Energy in Southampton, one of Long Island's largest installers. He is referring to the number of new systems his company has sold since Oct. 1, when LIPA doled out the last of its solar rebate budget to 107 customers who applied in a first-come, first-served online lottery.Those final rebates, totaling $1.75 million, were claimed in 11 minutes.

Michael Diehl, owner of Cantiague Electric, a solar installer in Westbury, described his post-rebate business as "pretty much nothing." "I'm not writing new contracts, but I am working with customers to pre-sell jobs" for next year, Diehl said.

The lack of LIPA funding is pushing some companies to look for new ways to keep going until the end of the year. Gary Minnick, owner of GoSolar in Aquebogue, said it's led him to promote more solar thermal systems, which use the sun to provide home heating but which aren't covered by the rebates, and to find creative ways to market systems relying more on federal tax credits.

Still others say the suspension of rebates for the year by LIPA is getting installers and customers tuned to the idea that the authority will eventually end its solar rebate program entirely, perhaps as early as 2013.

"I think they're all beginning to realize they will have to plan for a different incentive structure and, over time, a pretty much eliminated rebate," said Gordian Raacke, executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island, a green-energy advocacy group.

Minnick's company has already put out a brochure titled "Life Without LIPA Rebates," with pricing estimates that exclude the authority's funding. LIPA has acknowledged the program could begin to wind down in 2013, as lower solar panel prices and federal credits help the industry sustain itself.

Minnick said the rebate hiatus could give installers a reason to push solar thermal systems, which he said are cheaper, more efficient, and have a more immediate impact on reducing oil use than solar electric systems. Minnick said he sells an average 10 solar thermal systems a year, compared with around 60 solar electric ones.

Kevin MacLeod, owner of KPS Contracting and head of government affairs for the Long Island Solar Electric Industry Association, said while his company continues to talk to customers about prospective jobs, work contracted over the past several months keeps his crews busy.

As for new work, he said, "Most customers are saying, 'I want to do this but I want to wait until January before I begin."