Solar rebates causes inspection backlog

The City of Austin has been a long time proponent of solar energy, offering attractive rebates for residents who install solar systems in their homes, but a recent adjustment in the rebate program has home owners scrambling to get maximum money back on their investment.

As Austin Energy 's one and only official solar installation inspector, David Burgos has logged a lot of miles around Austin lately.

Austin Energy says they've received a record number of applicants seeking rebates -- 347 residential customers this fiscal year -- but with all these new residential systems going in, there's also a backlog in homes needing final inspection before the units can go live.

"What I'm looking for is basically two things," said Burgos. "Code compliance for the electrical installation and number two the rebate that the customer is asking for, we verify the amount of modules that is in the application."

Why is there such a backlog? Last month, Austin Energy decided to drop its rebate from $2.50 to $2 per watt. People who got their installations complete by last Friday qualified for the higher rate for a typical 5 kilowatt installation that amounts to more than $12,000.

"No matter how much we've had a rebate, we've had it as high at $4.50 and $3 and $3.50 no matter what level we've put the rebate this program is so popular that it almost always sells out," said Carlos Cordova of Austin Energy.

Since there are more than three dozen homes waiting to pump out much-needed energy, Austin Energy decided to add a temporary inspector to help with the caseload.

"With this new contractor, we should catch up fairly quickly," said Cordova.

According to the City, this has been a record year for solar installation. While residents are creating energy and saving money, the solar industry has also created 600 jobs in the last eight years.

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