Last week, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (VA) visited a residential solar customer’s installation after being contacted by installer Ipsun Solar to discuss investment tax credit legislation.
Ipsun CEO Herve Billiet wrote to Sen. Kaine recently about extending the federal tax credit and adding a direct-pay option for lower-income homeowners who may not owe enough in taxes to benefit from the credit. Sen. Kaine was interested in learning more and asked if he could visit a jobsite to talk with the installer and real customers. SEIA CEO and president Abigail Ross Hopper and Virginia House Delegate Karrie Delaney also joined the visit at a Fairfax home and had a frank discussion in the customer’s backyard.
According to a blog post from Ipsun Solar, Sen. Kaine asked the solar customer why he decided to install a solar + storage system.
“We get a lot of power outages, and after doing some research I learned that I could get a 26% tax credit off the full price of the system if I installed batteries and solar. I wouldn’t get the credit if I had only installed the batteries,” said customer Jim Zuras of Fairfax. The Build Back Better Act, if passed, would allow for a standalone battery tax credit and a direct-pay option.
Ipsun Solar employees also expressed how the tax credits provide a predictability in business that allows for better planning and fewer layoffs.
“We have that 26% tax credit for another year which is great, but it would help so much to extend it for a longer time, and adding that direct pay option for individuals would have a huge impact,” Billiet said. “Direct pay for corporations is nice, but it’s the individual homeowners who don’t have access to other methods of finance like lines of credit. If individual homeowners could have that option to get an immediate refund on the tax credit it would make a huge difference.”
You can read more about the visit on the Ipsun Solar website.
