The City of Philadelphia’s Office of Sustainability and the Philadelphia Energy Authority have opened applications for the Philadelphia Solar Rebate, an incentive program to encourage property owners to install solar photovoltaic systems in Philadelphia by providing $0.10 per watt to commercial projects and $0.20per watt to residential projects ($1,000 for an average row home installation). Visit https://www.phila.gov/solar-rebate to learn more and apply.
This one-time incentive payment will be issued by the City after the solar project has been installed and has received Permission to Operate from PECO. To be eligible to apply for the Solar Rebate, applicants must:
- Have installed solar on their property located in the city of Philadelphia.
- Have received Permission to Operate from PECO on or after July 1, 2019.
- Be current with or in a payment agreement for all taxes and other indebtedness to the City.
- Not have any unresolved building code or other property-related code violations.
Government or government-related projects will be subject to approval based solely on the discretion of the Sustainability Director.
Applications will be reviewed in the order in which they are received. Payments will be processed within 4–6 weeks, pending availability of funds. The Solar Rebate is not to exceed a total payment of $100,000 per project. If not enough funds are available in a given fiscal year, your application will be considered to have been filed on the first day of the next fiscal year.
The Solar Rebate is one of several measures supported by Mayor Kenney and passed by Philadelphia City Council in 2019 that support solar adoption. Other initiatives included a reduction in solar permit fees, a measure to enable solar canopies, and Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE).
The Philadelphia Energy Authority (PEA) is administering the Solar Rebate on behalf of the Office of Sustainability. PEA runs other solar market development programs, including Solarize Philly, the nation’s largest group buying program to support rooftop solar, and Bright Solar Futures, a solar training program for Philadelphia’s young people.
Visit https://www.phila.gov/solar-rebate to learn more and apply. Contact us at SolarRebate@philaenergy.org with any questions.