{"id":1701,"date":"2021-09-22T11:00:07","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T15:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/?p=1701"},"modified":"2024-04-25T23:19:25","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T03:19:25","slug":"communities-are-going-solar-will-it-play-in-peoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/communities-are-going-solar-will-it-play-in-peoria\/","title":{"rendered":"Communities Are Going Solar. Will It Play in Peoria?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Person<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Solar power is becoming a major real estate trend, as cities,\nstates, and the federal government all strive to lower their areas\u2019 greenhouse\ngas emissions. The U.S. Energy Department<\/a> notes that rooftop solar costs been halved\nsince 2014, and system installations are surging across the country. Sunrun and\nSolarCity (now part of Tesla) are leading that growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate-connected reasons aren\u2019t necessarily in the\nforefront of homeowners\u2019 minds when they go for it. A lot of the impetus\ninvolves blackouts after storms. Households seeking independence from\noverburdened grids are looking to generators, wall batteries, solar panels and tiles.\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Empowered Households<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The February 2021 Texas freeze was the last straw for some.\nInterest is home solar power systems spiked in the midst of the long,\nlife-threatening outages. Indeed, blackouts are becoming increasingly common\nchallenges for homeowners across the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home buyers are, in a sense, taking back their power. A home\nbuyer at Alset EHome\u2019s Northpark community in Texas receives battery storage\nand car charging equipment \u2014 and even a Tesla car<\/a>. The draws for buyers are multifaceted:\nfreedom from overworked power grids, lowered household costs over time, climate\nawareness, and the sense of being early adopters of high-tech energy sources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tesla Energy and Dacra are working with Brookfield Asset\nManagement on a new development in Austin, too. Brookfield Asset Management<\/a> has announced the project\nas \u201cthe nation\u2019s most sustainable residential community.\u201d Solar-forward housing\ndevelopments could funnel surplus energy into the areas around them, creating\nmajor solar hubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incentives for Home Solar<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Solar panel systems can reduce household electricity costs while\nsupporting reliable, uninterrupted power. Sweetening the deals still further\nare rebates and incentives for making the solar shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to manufacturer rebates on some home systems, there are various state and city renewable residential energy credits<\/a> (they vary, depending when the buyer makes the shift), and the\u00a0federal tax credit<\/a> \u2014 a 26%\u00a0break on the price of installation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home solar systems can fully pay for themselves in a few years. Granted,\nmuch depends on the state where the home is. States are still all over the\nplace with their approaches. Solar incentives vary even within states \u2014 for\nexample, among New Jersey homeowners<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some states, such as Virginia<\/a>, utilities companies must offset their carbon emissions, so they buy Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) from solar power producers. Homeowners can get in on this, and augment the returns on their solar investments. Sometimes solar incentives lose steam. Although California law<\/a>\u00a0sets forth state residents\u2019 rights to use solar power, in March 2021,\u00a0the state faced a proposal<\/a>\u00a0from utility companies to pay less to rooftop solar owners, alas \u2014 and to add a new fee for connecting the systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the heroes of our story? For the residents of Peoria, things aren\u2019t looking so sunny.\u00a0In 2016, Illinois passed the Future Energy Jobs Act, lowering home solar costs by thousands of dollars. Great! Except that the law was underfunded, and state incentives crumpled in the face of resistance from\u00a0fossil fuel companies<\/a>. Illinois funding woes also mean layoffs for solar technicians statewide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restrictive Covenants Versus Solar Access Rights<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Can people who own homes and condos in homeowners\u2019\nassociations (HOAs) go solar? That is, can a unit owner place solar panels on \u201ccommon\nelements\u201d of a multi-unit property?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some association say panels mar the aesthetics of the\nbuildings, so they\u2019re ruled out (although tiles might be acceptable). Some\ndelegate the call to the architectural review groups. Some HOAs argue that\nproperty values will be impacted when owners start installing solar panels. (This\nis not a strong argument, in light of the U.S. Energy Department\u2019s observation\nthat renewable electricity raises a property\u2019s value<\/a>.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virginia<\/a>\u00a0got out ahead of the arguments in 2020, forbidding HOAs or architectural review boards from making owners remove or reposition their solar panels if the change diminishes power or raises homeowners\u2019 costs significantly. Oregon residents<\/a> have had the right to solar access since 1979. Today, more than half the states ensure solar access. This means associations and boards may not prohibit homeowners from using solar energy systems. (Owners might still need to apply and follow reasonable direction from boards<\/a> before going ahead with installations.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, a condo buyer should look into a few questions before\nplanning to go solar:<\/p>\n\n\n\n