“It’s really a great time to be going solar. With long-term contracts and commitments, the price of that energy is now lower than fossil fuel energy,” said Sharon Pillar, a Pittsburgh-based consultant for Sharon Pillar Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). “The panels last 25-30 years or more. The savings over that time is great, and it’s also predictable. Grid electricity prices, we just keep seeing those go up, and fossil fuel electricity, we anticipate continuing to see that going up, and its also volatile – we don’t know what it is for year to year.”
E2’s Pennsylvania Clean Jobs report estimated there are currently 86,000 clean energy jobs in the state (8,714 in solar and wind energy), a number that could grow with new projects.
Another reason for a current rush of investment, Pillar said, could be the federal solar tax credit – which allows a 30 percent federal tax deduction– will be stepped down at the end of 2019 (to 26 percent in 2020, 22 percent in 2021, and ending at a permanent 10 percent in 2022 for commercial projects).