Solar Rebate Program On Its Way Out The Door

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

October 24, 2011 | 10:00 AM

William Thomas Cain / Getty Images

A solar panel in Brigantine, NJ powers the Marine Mammal Stranding Station.

A solar rebate program that has provided millions of dollars in subsidies to Pennsylvania consumers is ending, and alternative energy advocates are worried. The AP has more:

The Pennsylvania Sunshine program, passed in 2008, provided $100 million in solar rebates to homeowners and businesses to install such systems. That led to a boom, but the program has only a few millions dollars left, and the state has no plans to renew it.
“Some firms have moved to Ohio already, and we are considering that. By springtime we’re going to be looking at layoffs, or have to open another location in another state,” said Joe Morinville, the owner of Energy Independent Solutions in McKee’s Rocks.
He said some of his competitors have already left Pennsylvania for states that are continuing to support for the industry.
Karen Foltz, a spokeswoman for Pittsburgh-based Vox Energy Solutions, said the current climate for solar businesses in the state is hardly welcoming.
“People are losing their jobs,” said Foltz.

The solar industry has also complained Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act, which compels electric companies to buy solar power, is out of date. They’re also worried solar power is low on the Corbett Administration’s priority list. Last week, StateImpact pointed out the Republican has already driven out more green energy grants to natural gas projects through the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority than Democrat Ed Rendell did from 2005 to 2010.