CEC Funding on hold [RE-wrenches]

Mon Oct 28 21:28:04 PST 2002

Welcome to the trenches guys.

I know that many on this list were working in solar long before the current
round of tax credits, and what I'm going to say is no surprise to them, but
many of you have never had to sell a system to someone who had to pay full
cost. While I fully support and am working hard to get credits or some other
incentive in VT, I'm also building a business without them. It's hard, I
work late, I pay myself crap, (we pay our employees living wages) and the
future holds more of the same. I also work my butt off in politics, hoping
that this crew or that crew will do better by us (or at least not worse).

Anyway, the short point here is, it is really too bad if the CA credits go
even part way south. CA has been doing a great job in leading the country in
the legislation and the implementation, and we'd hate like hell not to be
able to point out your success to our own legislatures. However, make your
businesses stand up without them. Others have done it, you guys can do it,
your business will be better for it. (although you'll probably be thinner
and even more tired than you already are.)

Gotta love this business, otherwise, why be in it?

Jeff

Jeffery D. Wolfe, P.E.
Principal
Global Resource Options, LLP
A Woman-Owned Limited Liability Partnership
4 Kibling Hill Road
P.O. Box 161
Strafford, VT 05072
800-374-4494 Toll-Free
802-765-4632 Phone
802-765-9983 Fax
Jeff at GlobalResourceOptions.com
www.GlobalResourceOptions.com

Certified Xantrex Dealer (Charter Member)
Certified Solar Wall Distributor
Certified Nextek Distributor
Certified Bergey Dealer

-----Original Message-----
From: matthew tritt [mailto:solarone at charter.net]
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 10:58 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Re: CEC Funding on hold [RE-wrenches]

Nick,

This really is going to cause some big problems for a lot of our businesses
I fear. Personally, many of my off-grid customers have kind of petered out,
thanks to the ever-expanding power grid and the ever popular bargain
basement internet supply houses. Let's hope that the revised buy-down
amounts don't scare our clients out of the solar market!

Matt
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Nicholas" <APS at SBCGLOBAL.NET>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 2:40 PM
Subject: CEC Funding on hold [RE-wrenches]

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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