Attention Taunton Residents: Invest in Solar Power

Taunton residents and businesses have reason to celebrate.  The local utility, Taunton Municipal Lighting Plant (TMLP), has set aside $350,000 for solar power incentives, offering the most generous solar rebate in all of Massachusetts.

The base rebate for the Massachusetts Commonwealth Solar II rebate program, serving Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light, National Grid, NSTAR Electric, Western Massachusetts Electric, and some municipal lighting plant customers, is $1 per watt and maxes out at $2.10 per watt for up to a 5 kW system.  In comparison, the TMLP solar rebate seems a lot more generous for smaller systems – they offer a $4 per watt rebate for the first 2.5 kW.  An average installed cost of a solar energy system is about $7 or 8 per watt so the TMLP rebate would cover about 50% of the cost without taking into account any of the other incentives.

It would probably be best to run through a sample solar electric system to understand the costs and benefits a little more.   Let’s say a homeowner or business purchases a 2.5 kW solar energy system in Taunton for $20,000 (2.5kW x $8/watt).  They would be given a rebate of $10,000 (2.5 kW x $4/watt) from TMLP.  In addition, they would be eligible to receive a 30% tax credit from the Federal government and a 15% tax credit from Massachusetts up to $1,000.   The solar installation would cost only $6,000 after all of the incentives are factored in, this is just 30% of the original retail price.

To make things even more enticing, Massachusetts also introduced a Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) market this year.  Each time a solar energy system generates 1,000 kilowatt hours (1 megawatt hour) of electricity, an SREC is issued which can then be sold or traded separately.  A 2.5 kW system will conservatively generate about $850 of additional income annually from SRECs.   A homeowner or business would also see about $40 savings on their electricity bill monthly, or $480 annually. This means an investment in a solar energy system in Taunton is paid back in the 5^th year which is incredible. Then you can sit back and make money for the next 35 years.  There are not many other investments that will offer a return like solar in Taunton!

Please note these are estimates and will change based on your roof type, orientation, shading, etc.  I recommend that Taunton homeowners and businesses contact our solar panel installers for a free site evaluation and quote.

The first solar energy system in Taunton under the TMLP solar rebate program was just completed last week.  There are four or five other customers in line to receive a rebate.  The money will go fast so I advise residents and businesses to act quickly.  The rebate is capped at $10,000 for a 2.5 kilowatt system so if everyone maxes out the rebate, it will only fund 35 solar energy systems.

“We’re pleased that customers are responding to our new TMLP Solar Rebate Program,” said Michael Horrigan, General Manager at the Taunton Municipal Lighting Plant. “Mr. Morris is the first customer we will have the pleasure of rebating monies to for the installation of a system. We have several others in the cue and are delighted that TMLP customers will benefit directly from monies earmarked for “green” or renewable projects. It has long been our strategy to maintain a healthy green energy portfolio (including energy conservation, landfill gas, biomass and high-efficiency natural gas – esp. as it relates to our proposed Unit 10) and this is just one more tool in the bag enabling us to do so.”