Texas Solar Rebates and Incentives

Texas is still a little frustrated that it’s not the biggest state anymore, nor home to the United State’s biggest oil reserves. Alaska can claim both those titles, but it can’t best the Lone Star state in one important way, renewable resources. Texas was a big player in the development of its wind resources in the late 1990s, and it’s got plenty of big wind resources—and not just the noise coming from the oilmen, though T. Boone Pickens did a nice turn when he decided to invest in renewables rather than support politics. The state’s also got abundant solar resources for photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power installations.

To help Texans adopt renewables, the state offers numerous incentives, like property tax rebates and performance-based incentives. While other states have adopted legislation supporting net metering and rebates to its residents, utilities in Texas are allowed to offer net metering, but it is not required. And while many states offer direct rebates to property owners that install solar on their homes or businesses, power suppliers in Texas offer significant rebates to property owners in their service district. And there’s a smorgasbord of utilities in Texas that are offering incentives to their customers.

When George W. Bush was still the Governor of Texas and before Enron became infamous for its accounting practices, Texas was investing heavily in renewable energy, particularly wind. The investments made it the nation’s leader in wind. However, with the Enron scandal, and Bush’s election to the presidency. the state’s investment in wind and other renewables experienced a drought.

More recently, the state has resumed its interest in promoting renewables. As of 2010, it has a renewable portfolio standard, which requires 10,000 megawatts of renewables installed throughout the state by 2025. At least 500 MWs coming from non-wind sources. It will amount to about 10 percent of the state’s current energy use.

With the state’s once large oil reserves and still large natural gas reserves, going renewable might not look all that palatable in terms of energy independence. But, because of the state’s vast geographic landscape and its relatively low population density, having local sources of power generation could help cut down on expensive new transmission lines in the state, and by creating power onsite, without needing additional power input, it reduces the distance that coal, oil or natural gas needs to travel. So, someday soon you may see cowboys out rustling PV panels and solar concentrators instead of cattle.
 

 

Solar Rebate and Incentive Programs