Market for Home Solar Systems Heats Up
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
