CEC Funding on hold [RE-wrenches]

[Nick Nicholas]

Hello wrenches:
    Thank God for off grid solar systems, otherwise, we in California would be looking forward to a very slow winter.  
    I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that California has seen an increased interest in renewable energy systems.  The bad news is that this increased interest in RE has far surpassed the CECs annual budget.  CEC staff mentioned that present interest in CEC rebates is 50-60 million a year, with only 24 million legislated.  
    It appears that the CEC has given out all the reservations that it can this year, other than a few which will result from out dated reservations which pass up the nine month reservation period.      
    On Sept 26, ten million was legislated for funding CEC programs.  Unfortunately, these funds will be issued at a rate lower than $4.50 per watt, probably $3 per watt.  Unfortunately, the CEC is not able to confirm what the future rate will be.
    This is inconvenient to me for several reasons.  First of all, of the UI contracts I have lined up specify that I will receive the $4.50 per watt rebate!  This means that I will have to re-negotiate my contracts at a higher cost to my customer.  It is likely that these customers will not end up installing solar on their homes.
   The second inconvenience is that the CEC is unable to tell us what rate we can expect future reservations to be at.  This means that I will not be able to re-negotiate my contracts, because I do not know what the future rebate will be.
    Also, the Buydown Staff told me that all unfilled reservations will be returned to the applicant with a letter saying "Try again next year."  This is not only inconvenient for California installers, but this looks badly for all of the solar industry.
    This puts quite a wrench in the machine.  I would appreciate it if the CEC could notify us as soon as possible regarding the rate that the future reservations will be set at.
    For now, APS has many projects at various stages of the design process, and we would love to be able to continue bidding and installing systems.  Or, at least, filing the reservations so that we install the systems early next year.
    I would appreciate any info you have on this subject.
Nick Nicholas
Alternative Power Systems
www.alternativepowersystems.com
aps at sbcglobal.net
135 Colfax Ave.
Grass Valley, CA 95945
(530) 274-0588 phone
(530) 274-0589 fax
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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