Sullivan Solar Power began offering a county-wide discount on solar installations in San Diego in April 2012. Under the program residents are able to receive double the incentives offered through California Solar Initiative (CSI) state rebate. But that deal ends Dec. 31, so residents considering an array might want to make their mind up about it now.

The effort is helping San Diego, with more rooftop solar than any other U.S. city, retain its top spot as solar capital of the nation, according to Sullivan Solar. The incentive program was capped at 500 residential systems in San Diego County. And, over the course of the incentive offering, it expects to pay up to $800,000 in cash-back incentives.

Under Sullivan Solar’s San Diego Solar Program, as capacity milestones were reached, the incentive amounts for customers dropped. At this point Sullivan Solar is offering a 20 cent per watt rebate from the company. It said that the average homeowner signing a contract on or before it ends on New Year’s Eve will receive $1,000 cash-back rebate.

Sullivan Solar Director of Community Relations & Development Erica Lynn Johnson said, “The program has been extremely successful to-date and we anticipate that the initiative will close out better than we had expected.” She added, “We expect there to be between 300 and 400 solar power systems to be installed as a result of this program.”

Even if the program isn’t full subscribed, the company won’t extend it into 2013, Johnson said. “It has been scheduled just to last through the end of the year since the program's inception,” she explained.

The company is prepared for a last-minute, post-Christmas crunch. “Sullivan Solar Power has run multiple community solar programs in the past 3 years, many of them on a much more hyper-local scale,” Johnson said. “In all of the programs we have administered, there has always been a huge spike in the last 2 to 3 days of the program where residents who have been holding off on signing up make a decision,” she asserted.