Over the past 12-months, solar trade allies completed 1,624 solar projects. Out of that total, 418 or 26 percent of those projects needed corrections to be addressed before the solar installation met all program requirements and 147 of those projects had only corrections classified as minor. Currently, solar trade allies must provide evidence that all corrections have been addressed and the project meets Energy Trust solar program installation requirements before an incentive check can be issued.

Starting August 14, 2017, the solar program will begin expediting incentive payments for projects that are found to have only minor corrections required. The solar program will send a notice listing the correction(s) to both the contractor and the customer, stating that the system has minor corrections to be addressed before it meets Energy Trust requirements and that it is the trade ally contractor’s responsibility to make the necessary corrections.

This program enhancement is part of Energy Trust’s ongoing solar soft costs reduction initiative, which is designed to decrease the cost of solar installations in Oregon. The change is expected to permit solar trade ally contractors to receive incentive payment checks two to three weeks faster on projects that only require minor corrections.

Projects that require minor corrections will continue to have the same negative impact on the solar trade ally’s star rating score, and  the program continues to expect that solar trade ally contractors will construct their projects to meet all solar electric installation requirements. For projects with major corrections, the trade ally must still provide evidence that the correction has been addressed before the Energy Trust incentive can be paid.

Some corrections classified as minor include:

• Sealed building penetrations (2.3.3)
• Permanent system labelling (2.3.17)
• Onsite customer manuals (3.0)

For more information and a definition of major and minor corrections, refer to the Trade Ally Rating System document online.

For questions about this program enhancement, contact Matt Getchell.