As summer winds down into fall, so has Xcel Energy’s solar incentives in Minnesota. The company offered homeowners and businesses a total of $4.6 million through its Solar Rewards program in Minnesota in 2011.

Because of high demand, the funds were depleted even before the third quarter of the year. But the program will be offered again in 2012 and beyond.

“This is the first full calendar year with this program,” said Susannah Pedigo, Xcel’s manager of renewable energy products and services. “Given the level of interest, we did anticipate that it would run out early. I think a lot of people knew that this would sell out earlier than the end of the year. It’s a good thing. People are obviously excited by this technology and this program.”

In 2012, Xcel will make $5 million in Solar Rewards available, according to Petigo.

“The way the program was designed, during the first three years,” she said, “$5 million is allocated annually.”

The incentive program was first offered in Minnesota in 2010, according to Pedigo. But it wasn’t offered for the whole year.

Since its introduction in Minnesota, roughly 220 projects have received rebates from Solar Rewards (Xcel also offers a Solar Rewards program in Colorado).

“For completed projects—that’s including 2010, and what we’ve done in 2011, we’ve had 175 residential and 45 commercial projects,” said John Wold, Solar Rewards program manager in Minnesota.

In terms of kilowatts added in, the majority was also residential—at least in 2010. The commercial projects added 440 kilowatts, while the residential projects added 612 kilowatts in Minnesota, he said. Figures for 2011‘s installations were not immediately available.

There is some concern, however, that commercial entities could overtake the residential installations in the future. Minnesota’s legislature recently changed another solar subsidy program that spurred more commercial development, according to the Minnesota Star-Tribune.
The Solar Rewards program covers both residential and commercial entities.

“It’s one fund,” Pedigo said. But it’s capped at 40 kilowatts, she said. “So it attracts smaller participants.”

People who signed up too late for the Solar Rewards program in 2011 will still be eligible for the program in 2012—even if they’ve applied and already installed solar on their homes, according to Pedigo.

“The way we’ve designed this is we don’t want to disrupt work for the installers or the customers,” she said. “We’re letting people file for 2012.”

In the interim, homeowners wanting to go solar can do some other things to streamline the process for 2012, Pedigo said.

For instance, they can get a home energy audit—with help from Xcel.

“There’s a lot of work we’re allowing customers to do. They can get as far in the process as installing the system, but we can’t set the meters until January 1. We can’t release the funds [until then].”

Petigo doesn’t expect Solar Rewards to run out of funds in Colorado or elsewhere this year.

“Policy environments are different in every state,” she said.

These programs also have different interest levels in different states.

“Colorado is our largest state for this program, and Minnesota is second,” she said.

Earlier this year in Colorado, the company temporarily shut the Solar Rewards program down to reduce the incentive and readjust the program so more people could go solar in the state.

“In terms of where we operate in Colorado, it’s the only state where we’ve closed and reopened [Solar Rewards],” she said.

Image courtesy of the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society.