So, you are looking at solar for your home again. Maybe it has been a few months, maybe even a few years! Under Connecticut’s netting tariff program, homeowners can now qualify for additional incentives either by living in a Distressed Municipality or by meeting Income-Eligible guidelines. As you are meeting with solar professionals, check out these tips to unlock the largest incentives for your solar project.

How Do These Incentives Work?

As your solar panels produce energy, you will receive credits for the energy you send back to the grid. Commonly referred to as net metering, this program allows you to build up virtual dollars that accumulate over time, effectively reducing your energy costs.

Now for the kicker: when you qualify for additional incentives, you (or whoever owns the solar array) will also receive real dollars from the utility every quarter for twenty years! That is real money for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) your solar array produces.

What Is The Distressed Municipality Adder?

The Distressed Municipality incentive is $0.0175 for every kWh your panels produce. When you live in one of the towns below, you already qualify!

What Is The Income-Eligible Adder?

The Income-Eligible adder is $0.035 for every kWh your panels produce. To find out if you qualify for this incentive, consider whether you participate in any of the following programs:

• Winter Protection Program, New Start, Matching Payment Program, or Low Income Discount Rate

• Home Energy Solutions Income Eligible (HES-IE) program

• Medicare Savings Program

• Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

• Social Security Disability Income (SSDI)

• HUSKY A or HUSKY B

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

• Connecticut Energy Assistance Program

• Connecticut Head Start

• Women Infants and Children (WIC)

All you need is to produce a letter demonstrating your participation in the program. Your installer will take care of your enrollment with the utility.

How Do These Incentives Help You?

You will see benefits no matter how you choose to go solar. If you own your system outright through a cash purchase or solar loan, you will receive quarterly payouts from the utility for every kWh produced by your system. If you go solar with a lease or a power purchase agreement (PPA), your lease/PPA provider will lower your monthly payments for the term.

For example, if your solar array is designed to produce 10,000 kWh and you qualify for the income-eligible adder, you could receive payouts adding up to $6,800!

Can I Qualify For Both Adders?

Sadly no. The income-eligible adder will compensate you at double the rate of the distressed municipality adder. If you live in a distressed community and believe you qualify for the Income-Eligible adder, you should inform your solar professional that you qualify for the higher incentive so you can net the greatest return on your investment.

How Do I Get Started?

Getting started is easy! All your solar professional needs is a letter or other statement proving that you belong to one of the utility or state programs above. Otherwise, your installer will qualify you for the distressed municipality adder.

Last (but certainly not least!), ask your solar professional how you can use these same incentive adders to reduce your upfront costs for battery storage!