Solar Heats Up

With falling costs and hefty tax credits for solar systems, more homeowners are harnessing the sun to save money.

- Por Patricia Mertz Esswein

IVICA BILICH AND JENNIFER TWIGGS, OF CHARLOTTE, N.C., love their solar panels. “When I pull up to my house on a sunny day and see the panels, they look like a slot machine dropping money on my front porch,” says Bilich.

The couple had been thinking about going solar for years, but in the fall of 2018, the numbers—a combination of falling costs and incentives—finally made sense for them. They attended a presentation at a nearby brewery by local solar installer Jeff Redwine, co-owner of Renewable Energy

Design Group, and left the event ready to pull the trigger. Bilich and Twiggs asked Redwine for a proposal. After visiting their home and reviewing a year’s worth of the couple’s electric bills, Redwine proposed a system that cost $20,000 before any incentives. The couple learned they would get a federal tax credit of $6,000—30% of the cost of the system—and a $4,320 rebate from Duke Energy if they acted quickly (funding is limited annually). The incentives reduced their total cost to $9,680.

“It was a no-brainer for us,” says Twiggs. With estimated savings of nearly $1,000 in the first year at today’s electric rates, they’ll save an average of $1,500 annually over 25 years as rates rise. They figure they’ll recoup their cost in nine years and should save a bit more than $38,000 over 25 years.