By
LESLIE FRIDAY/ecoRI.org News contributor
To
be green, sometimes you need to spend a little green. That’s the lesson
Massachusetts officials have learned by enticing homeowners to invest in
renewable energy through tax breaks, rebates and other economic incentives.
Since
1979, Massachusetts has offered a $1,000, one-time tax credit to homeowners who
install solar systems, but that incentive didn’t exactly push residents to
invest in these relatively costly systems.
What
really drove the solar energy market, according to Dwayne Breger, director of
the Division of Renewable Energy at the Massachusetts Department of Energy
Resources (DOER), was the legislature’s passage in 2008 of the Green Communities Act.
To
enact this and other green legislation, the state created the Massachusetts Clean Energy
Center (MassCEC) in 2009. The
agency started providing rebates to homeowners, businesses and municipalities
that installed solar power systems with the capacity to generate up to 15
kilowatts.
DOER
also implemented a solar carve-out program, which issues a solar renewable
energy certificate (SREC) to solar system owners for each megawatt-hour of
electricity they generate. SRECs trade at market value, which floats currently
between $200 and $250 apiece — a price often higher than fossil fuel-generated
electricity. Retail electric suppliers gobble up these certificates, as they
are required by state law to buy a certain number of them annually in support
of renewable energy production.
If
homeowners are hesitant to invest in the upfront costs of a photovoltaic
system, third-party businesses have stepped in to fill the void by installing
the equipment and racking up SRECs while hosts enjoy lower energy costs.
“It
may take an upfront cost, but the payback with incentives is quite strong,”
Breger said. “If you don’t want to have the upfront cost, you can do the
third-party arrangement and have small but immediate energy-cost savings over
time.
So
far, nearly 4,000 residential solar projects have been installed and only 10 of
the state’s 351 cities and towns don’t have some form of solar activity, Breger
said.
Gov.
Deval Patrick’s goal in 2007 of stalling 250 megawatts of solar by 2017 now
seems like an easy layup, considering residents, businesses and municipalities
have already installed 205 megawatts, according to the MassCEC. The state has
since readjusted its goal to 400, because of the success of its solar carve-out
program.
Homeowners’
embrace of solar energy means the state’s RPS currently stands at 9 percent,
Breger said, with an annual growth rate of 1 percent — on pace to meeting the
2020 goal.
Adoption
of small-scale wind energy production has been less feverish, with the MassCEC
reporting that 100 megawatts have been installed so far, despite an eventual
goal of 2,000 MW by 2020. Most projects are based on farms or homesteads
interested in testing out the systems,
Breger said. Wind may be less popular
because the financial incentive is only $50 per megawatt-hour generated — not
to mention the fact that slapping solar panels on a roof is less complex in
terms of zoning and neighbor relations than erecting a wind turbine in the
backyard.
As
for other projects, MassCEC plans to distribute $10 million through 2016 in
rebates of up to $3,500 to homeowners, businesses, nonprofits and
municipalities that install solar hot water systems as alternatives to oil or
natural gas burners.
The agency is also piloting a program that provides grants
of up to $2,000 to homeowners who replace coal stoves, non-EPA-certified
woodstoves or outdated fireplace inserts with high-efficiency, low-emissions
fireplace inserts or wood-pellet heating systems.
These
efforts are all part of Massachusetts’ plan to move toward a green energy
future. “Our governor and others believe that the concerns and costs associated
with climate change is something we need to address,” Breger said. “This is a
win-win for a new economy, a new industry, and addressing our climate
commitments."