Jul 19 2010
The increase in demand for solar energy systems has led Tucson Electric Power (TEP) for proposing lower subsidies targeted at residential customers installing PV arrays.
In 2010, around 1,100 local homeowners have opted for reserving TEP SunShare rebates meant for PV systems. Moreover, local businesses have increasingly started making investments in solar power systems.
Responding to this surge in demand, TEP has requested the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) to decrease residential SunShare rebates to $2.25 from $3 per watt meant for PV arrays that area grid-tied. This increase in demand for SunShare subsidies of TEP is partly driven by decreased expenses for solar energy systems. Meanwhile, TEP has proposed numerous options for customers in the commercial sector, whose requests for initial incentives have been currently put on hold by the ACC.
The residential customers of TEP have reserved over $12.2 million out of the $17.6 million in initial SunShare incentives allocated for residential customers this year. Meanwhile, rebate requests from domestic businesses have crossed the allocated budget of $5 million for initial incentives. The speed of reservations increased soon after Arizona Public Service (APS) decreased its PV incentives to $1.95 for every Watt in April 2010.
This year, TEP will add a capacity of 1.8 MW to its Springerville Generating Station Solar System with 4.6 MW capacity. Moreover, TEP will construct a single-axis tracking PV array with 1.6 MW capacity in the Tucson region.