The board of directors of Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility, voted last week to approve a $2.3 million incentive program designed to encourage residential customers and businesses to use solar electricity. The Post and Courier says that the program is the next step after an August buyback program that credited customers about 4 cents per kWh for excess solar power that they generate and sell back to the utility.
The new program adds 3 cents to the credit for the first 500 residential customers and offers a rebate to residential and commercial customers who buy and install panels. The rebate is 65 cents per watt. The cap on the program is $250,000.
The board also approved a plan under which customers who can’t install their own panels can subscribe to get energy from the Colleton Solar Farm.
In Banff, Canada, the municipally run Solar Photovoltaic Incentive Program is open to residential and business customers. Participants install their own solar panels. If more power is produced than needed, it is sold to the town, reports CBC News.
