"Oregon re-tools solar incentives, solar requirement on public buildings"

Courtesy of Energy Trust of Oregon, ODOE

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Energy Trust of Oregon (Portland, Oregon, U.S.) has recently made a few changes to its Solar Electric Buy-Down Program.

The solar solar incentive program, launched in May 2003, is available to customers of Pacific Power and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PGE), who install new photovoltaic (PV) systems on new or existing homes, commercial and community buildings, farms and municipal facilities.

Residential PV incentives for Pacific Power, PGE customers declined
The residential PV incentives declined from USD 1.25/watt (W) to USD 1.00/W for Pacific Power and from USD 1.75/W to USD 1.25/W for PGE. The residential maximum cap for PGE declined from USD 10,000 to USD 7,500 for both homeowner- and third party-owned systems.

Rebate levels for commercial, industrial, non-profit, and government systems fixed at USD 1.00/W
Commercial rebates were previously based on system capacity, with higher rebates levels available for smaller commercial systems. Non-profit and government systems were able to take advantage of slightly higher rebates than other non-residential systems. Now, the rebate levels for commercial, industrial, non-profit, and government systems are fixed at USD 1.00/W, with a maximum cap of USD 15,000 for Pacific Power and USD 75,000 for PGE.

Solar energy systems on public buildings
Since 2008, Oregon has required that public building projects include solar if the total contract price is USD 1 million or greater. Under this requirement, solar must account for at least 1.5% of the total contract price.

SB 1533, enacted in March 2012, changed the solar requirement to a “green energy” requirement. Under the new rules, geothermal and solar technologies can be used to meet this requirement as of January 1st, 2013. Green energy technologies include geothermal electric, geothermal direct use, solar electric, solar thermal, and passive solar.