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September 8, 2010 · The “Bring Solar Home” campaign is working to help local homeowners learn what they need to know about installing solar panels and make them easier to pay for.
If you have a solar system on your home, you are one of only 133 such homeowners in San Antonio. If you have a solar hot water heater, you’re one of only 20.
That’s the evidence of just how hard it is to get people to go solar. The new campaign is designed to knock down the two biggest obstacles to solar commitment – too little information and too much money.
Lanny Sinkin, executive director of Solar San Antonio, says more people would be encouraged if they realized the savings they would see through this program.
Sinkin: "The bank will give you the total cost of the project. Then, CPS will give you a rebate that runs roughly half the cost. You can turn around and give that to the bank and lower the loan by half within six weeks of starting the process. Then, you get a 30-percent federal tax credit. If you turn around and give that money to the bank, the bank will lower the loan again. And pretty soon, we’re down in the area where your monthly loan payments are in the neighborhood of $100 a month."
Sinkin says it isn’t surprising that banks are just now starting to create structures for these types of loans.
Sinkin: "Because you make the loan, then you get the rebate, then you get the federal tax credit. So it’s not like the standard loan. You sort of have many balloon payments along the way."
And another benefit for the homeowner – solar panels could increase the home’s value by $20-thousand dollars, but the legislature has exempted the homes from property tax increases.
Sinkin: "Even though it does increase the property value, there is no increase in their property tax."
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