Solar-rebate program gets its start in Roxborough

Pennsylvania's long-anticipated rebate program to help owners of homes and small businesses offset the cost of buying and installing solar-energy systems is officially up and running.

Gov. Rendell made a visit this morning to a home in Roxborough to declare the Pennsylvania Sunshine Program ready to accept applications. The program will offer rebates of up to 35 percent of the cost of a solar system.

"This is a great day for Pennsylvanians who care about saving money over the long run, who care about creating the new green-energy jobs that President Obama talks so much about, and who care about the quality of our air and the future of our environment for our children and our grandchildren," Rendell said.

At just about the same moment, the sun broke through what had been a cloud-covered sky.

The dozen or so solar contractors on hand for the event, held on the back deck of the Lare Street home of Charlie Bushka and his wife, Lynette Rundgren, underscored how eager the fledgling industry has been for some help from Harrisburg in transforming consumer interest into actual orders for solar systems.

"What a great day," said Mark J. Connolly, an energy engineer at Atlantic Energy Concepts, a Reading-based designer and installer of solar systems. "This is the beginning of the money starting to flow and green jobs."

Bushka, a firefighter at Philadelphia International Airport, said he has had an interest in going solar for nearly four years but couldn't take on the estimated $30,000 expense without funding help from the state.

So he has patiently waited for the creation of a rebate program in Pennsylvania. That came in July, when the legislature approved Rendell's $650 million Alternative Energy Funding Act. But funding for the $100 million solar-rebate portion of that program was not authorized by the Commonwealth Financing Authority until last month.

Rundgren said it was "embarrassing" that New Jersey and Maryland had instituted solar funding assistance programs long before Pennsylvania.

"I'm excited the state is going to start putting its foot in the water," Rundgren said.