Solar rebate program proposed

Those interested in installing solar panels may be eligible for a new rebate if a bill continues to move forward.

Sponsored by Rep. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia), HF3033 was approved by the House Energy Finance and Policy Division March 14.

A $21 million appropriation from the Renewable Development Fund would pay for the rebate program. Xcel Energy pays into the fund annually and the money is redistributed in the form of renewable energy research and development grants. As the sole utility feeding the fund, Xcel Energy is required to pay based on the amount of nuclear waste it stores at its two power plants.

Division members debated whether the rebates should be available statewide or only to Xcel Energy customers, since they are the ratepayers whose payments go into the fund. Rukavina is amenable either way, but, for now, the bill only applies to Xcel Energy territory. It also requires that the solar panels be manufactured in Minnesota.

Annual increments of $2 million to $5 million would be transferred into a special account in the Department of Commerce over the next five years. People or businesses who apply and qualify for the rebates would be paid from that account. Currently, the fund is disbursed through a competitive grant process, and Deputy Commerce Commissioner Bill Glahn said the rebate program would take the place of some of those grants. “By opening this door, we’re closing some others,” Glahn said.

As proposed, money in the account would be available until expended, some division members preferred to have any remaining funds returned to the RDF in 2015 at the conclusion of the program. An amendment is expected at the bill’s next stop, the House Finance Committee.

A companion, SF2676, sponsored by Sen. David Tomassoni (DFL-Chisholm) was held over March 23 by the Senate Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Budget Division for possible omnibus bill inclusion.