Thoughts on Solar

We have just learned that the City of Burbank will once again be offering rebates for a very limited number of solar installations.  Here are the details.

The total program is limited to projects below 30 kW; larger projects need not apply.

The program will pay rebates to residential customers at $1.28/Watt (CEC-AC) and $0.97/Watt for commercial customers.  There is no carve out for non-profits, however they say that such entities “will be given lottery priority."  Burbank says that is anticipates having enough funding for 50 residential and 10 commercial projects, with the allocation evenly split between the two.  That figures to be around a total of 500 kW, 50 residential at 5 and ten commercial at 25 kW each.  Surely the demand in Burbank is greater than that, so how will they handle the inevitable over-subscription?  Easy - Burbank is holding a lottery.

Throughout the month of July, applications can be delivered to the offices of Burbank Water & Power.  Then, on August 12, 2013, Burbank will hold a lottery and application numbers will be selected at random.  (Not sure how that squares with giving non-profits “lottery priority".) The lucky few winners will be notified by August 16, 2013.  “Winning” applications will have 1 year to complete their installation.

Questions about the program can be addressed to Solar Support Program Managers John Joyce or Alfred Antoun.

Not a great program by any stretch, but at least, for a while, Burbank is back in the game.

We have just learned that Burbank Water and Power (BWP) - which had suspended its solar rebates back in April 2011 - is introducing what might be the most bizarre rebate procedure ever - a rebate lottery!  Here is the text of the announcement in its entirety from the BWP website:

Direction for how the program will accept new applications effective July 1, 2012 will be provided by the Burbank City Council on June 26. Staff is proposing the following:

1. Retain the current policy of dividing the remaining non-Performance Based Incentive (PBI) budget amount evenly between residential and small commercial solar installations. This is projected to provide approximately $60,000 in incentives for each customer category.
2. Lottery applications would be accepted from July 1 through September 1, 2012.
3. On September 4, 2012, BWP would use a lottery system to provide an order of rebate consideration for both residential and commercial (including Not-for-Profit organizations)solar applications. Priority will be given to business accounts that fall under a not-for-profit designation.
4. Applicants will be notified in early September of their lottery number and application status. ”Winners” will be provided one month to meet all previously defined system application requirements through BWP’s online PowerClerk system, including, but not limited to, a signed contract, meter service confirmation, and City permit application approval.
5. Rebates would open at Step 6: $1.28/watt for residential installations and $0.97/watt for commercial installations.

Additional details will be posted on this web site in early July 2012. If you have additional questions please contact the program manager at solarsupport@ci.burbank.ca.us

If this announcement is to be taken at face value, this means that they will be setting up a two-month lottery for the chance to be one of maybe 12 residential projects to get a rebate and only one fo 2-4 small commercial projects.  Seriously?  All this Sturm und Drang for a grand total of 16 rebates?  With no way for a BWP customer to know in advance whether they will be one of the lucky “winners"?

We sent an email to the address above asking for some clarification, but as of this publication we have not received a reply.  If you think this “lottery” is as silly as we do, please send an email to solarsupport@ci.burbank.ca.us - maybe they will be more willing to respond to you!

While we weren’t watching, the folks at Burbank Water & Power (BWP) pulled the plug on their solar rebate program, continuing the trend of on-again/off-again solar rebate programs at Southern California municipal utilities which has also included LADWP and Glendale Water & Power in the past year. Of the local munis, only Pasadena Water & Power has managed their program without interruption.

Here is the announcement from BWP’s website:

Due to the overwhelming success of the BWP Solar Support Rebate program and budgetary restrictions, effective April 21^st 2011 the program has been suspended.  Only those rebate applications in the on-line software PowerClerk with a status of “Confirmed Reservation” will be paid.  These payments will be made when all remaining documentation is provided, but no sooner than July 1, 2011.  All other solar rebate applications will be canceled and paperwork mailed back to the installer.  Please check back to this web site in the spring of 2012 for a possible update.  Solar Installers with customers that wish to proceed without a solar rebate should contact the program manager at solarsupport@ci.burbank.ca.us for details about the Solar Interconnection Agreement and other requirements.

Pardon us for a contrarian view, but when you have to suspend your program mid-year, it isn’t an “overwhelming success” — it is mismanaged.

Potential solar clients and solar companies alike need predictability - not programs that can simply disappear without prior notice.

Which brings us to another curious thing about this website announcement - it says that the effective date for the program suspension was April 21, 2011 but the earliest public disclosure that we can find about the change is this article in the local newspaper, the Burbank Leader, titled “Burbank Officials Suspend Solar Rebate Program,” dated August 30!  Now it is true that we do not monitor the BWP website on a daily basis, but it stands to reason that if this suspension had been announced earlier, we would be able to find some notice of it online before August 30 - four months after the suspension date! (Interestingly, the last press release displayed on the BWP website is from April 22 but it says nothing about the suspension.)

If that timing is accurate, it means that solar companies could have been devoting time and resources in a tight economy to developing business in Burbank for a third of a year, only to have that expenditure rendered largely useless at the caprice of another muni utility that cannot manage its budget.

We have just learned that as of February 26th, Burbank Water & Power has suspended solar rebates for commercial systems larger than 30 kW until August 1, 2013!  In taking this sad and unexpected step, BWP joins the ranks of LADWP (all solar rebates suspended until July 1 of this year at the earliest) and Glendale which earlier suspended all commercial solar power rebates until 2015!

This, quite frankly folks, is no way to run a railroad.  How a municipal utility can get away with changing course in mid-stream without holding hearings or providing notice to stakeholders is hard to fathom.  (At least the decision making process at LADWP has been debated in the open - which drew a significant crowd of solar supporters.)  We cannot find any information about why this change was made on either the BWP website, the City’s website or in local news searches.  We will update this story when we learn more.