Solar stimulation by Obama

Good news on the solar front.

The Obama stimulus package includes some stimulus for the solar photovoltaic industry. It is particularly good to be buying solar photovoltaic in Colorado now. The federal tax credit--which we would have had to wait until 2010 to claim--now can be taken as a grant from the US Treasury. Furthermore, there is language in it that states that there is a 30% grant payable from the Treasury to the Kubec household and that that 30% is based off of the total cost of the system. In Colorado that is huge because we get some subsidies from XCEL and the state.

Here are the basic numbers: The total cost of the system is $23K. XCEL will rebate $4.5 per watt, which works out to $12.7K. So we are under contract to pay our installer $10.3K. Before the stimulus package was signed on Tuesday, we would have been eligible for a 30% federal tax credit, payable in 2010 for 2009 taxes, based on either the $23K or the $10.3K. According to my solar installer, it was the bigger number. However, I was worried that this was not the case. Now, the question is clearly resolved in the language of the new law, and we will get 30% as a grant payable from the US Treasury withing 60 days of installation.