Make it 100 billion dollars, and now we’re talking!
Of the 700 some odd billion dollars in the new Obama initiative plan, only about 32 billion of that is going for solar incentives. Most of that is for the wonderful 30% solar tax credit which helps everyone who puts solar panels up on their roof. *
That’s all fine and well, but let’s take that a step farther. Give me another 30 billon dollars for tax incentives to electric companies that offer a solar line feed in tariff. After all, feed in tariffs are a great incentive for anyone with a solar array to get a guaranteed fixed price for any energy being fed into the lines from solar production, that is not being consumed by the household. Now, not only do we have a tax incentive to put up solar, it becomes profitable to own solar.
Okay, one more step. Let’s take another 30 billion bucks and give extra incentives to those institutions that burn huge amounts of electricity like hospitals, apartment complexes, airports. Get those guys using solar and see the transformation in the industry.
As we all know, solar is growing even in this recession, and making solar even more appealing will cause the industry to grow all that much faster. Sure, the original 32 billion dollars is helping, no doubt, but it’s almost like nickel and dimeing the solar economy. Solar is growing, consumers are buying, but it should be 3 times that if the extra monies were dumped into a sure thing like solar.
Oh, and that extra 10 billion we have left here? Rebates. For the next couple of years, dangle a 20% rebate check in front of anyone that goes solar. Add that to the 30% tax credit, the feed in tariff, and the institutional incentives, and I can just about guarantee that solar panels would be popping up on roofs across the country, with the industry working 24/7 to keep up, new jobs there for the taking, and a booming economy!
*http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/PressSummary02-13-09.pdf
