The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has an interesting solar rooftop incentive program with a goal to have 100,000 systems on rooftops in LA by the year 2010. We like this particular program because it gives an extra incentive to systems that are manufactured locally inside Los Angeles. The solar power program has been authorized a total budget of $150 million through June 30, 2011.
TheSolar PV program assists the LADWP in achieving its goal of providing 20% of its energy from renewable energy sources by 2010.
Theprogram was updated in 2006 to use a performance-based incentive to determine the incentive payment. This is a major revision of the previous version of the program where the incentive was calculated based on the size (kW) of the system. In addition, the new program includes two separate funding categories, which LADWP says will ensure equitable distribution of incentive funds. Base incentives are as follows: 14 cents per kilowatt hour (kWH) for both residential and government projects, 11 cents/kWH for commercial projects. A typical 2kW residential rooftop solar system produces 3,600 kWHs per year.
Theprogram also offers a Los Angeles Manufacturing Credit of 2 cents/kWH for residential and government projects, 1 cent per kW hour for commercial, if more than 50% of the components of the finished PV system are manufactured and/or assembled in the Los Angeles city limits.
Interestedcustomers can visit the LADWP website and use the online PVWatts calculating tool to estimate individual PV system output and calculate the potential incentive amount. Rebate amounts will vary depending upon the size, tilt, position and location of the solar PV system.
Anexample rebate for a 2.4 KW residential system with components from the Los Angeles area and an estimated output of 3,646 kWH/year looks like the following:
(3,646 x 20 (estimated years of output) x 0.9 (degredation factor) x 0.14 x 0.02) + (3,646 x 20 x 0.9 x 0.02) = $10,500 rebate.
As of September 2007, more than 1,000 residential and commercial projects have received incentives.
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