Incentives could spark solar sales, but gov’t not inclined
Published:Thursday | September 26, 2019 | 12:00 AM
Damion Mitchell, Integration Editor
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah:
The high cost of batteries for solar systems is retarding Jamaica’s potential to store energy from renewable sources, at least two dealers have lamented. But it appears that the Government will not yield to their appeals for incentives to make it cheaper.
Troy Moo Young, a 35-year-old solar dealer, says the average Jamaican householder paying $7,000 a month to the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) could save thousands of dollars over time if he is able to find $650,000 to set up solar panels at home.
However, the energy would fade at sunset if the homeowner does not buy specially designed batteries for an additional $400,000 to store the solar-generated power.
As a result, many people with solar panels at home still keep their JPS system, to which they switch over at nights.
Returned to Jamaica
It is an issue with which Moo Young, the manager of Get Sol Warehouse in St Andrew, has been wrestling since 2012 when he returned to Jamaica from England to enter the energy market.
So, what’s the fix?
Moo Young believes that it’s time the Government commit to long-term incentives to encourage people to procure batteries to store solar-generated electricity.
Current duty-free exemptions on batteries are set to expire within two years and other taxes are still applicable to the product.
“Energy storage is getting extremely important now,” Moo Young told The Gleaner at the 2019 Solar Power International Trade Show in Salt Lake City in the United States.
But it appears that the Government is not considering incentives for batteries for solar systems.
“The Government has been moving away from incentives in favour of a general lowering of taxes,” Energy Minister Fayval Williams told The Gleaner, adding that handpicking the solar sector for special incentives would run counter to the administration’s policy.
That is disappointing news for Maikel Oerbekke, director of Renewable Energy Developers, based in Montego Bay, St James.
“The Government needs to drive it,” he said, citing the need for greater emphasis on storage. “That’s the biggest market because we are waiting as a nation to see prices of batteries go down.”
He, too, believes that the Government should consider tax incentives as high as 50 per cent reductions to make solar storage batteries more attractive.
Make solar systems collateral for loans
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah:
A decision by banks and other lending institutions to accept solar systems as collateral against loans to acquire the equipment could go a far way in helping to promote the use of renewable energy in Jamaica, one dealer insists.
“Every day, you see new motor vehicles coming off the line, and that is because they are being financed. If that could happen to solar, I think the market would actually go up exponentially,” Troy Moo Young told The Gleaner.
He was participating in the Solar Power International trade show in Salt Lake City, where hundreds of solar system manufacturers, vendors, and buyers have gathered.
But Damian Lyn, the managing director of Alternative Power Sources, wants more than that.
He says banking institutions should also cut the interest rates they are demanding on loans to acquire solar systems.
Currently, borrowers incur around nine per cent interest on solar loans.
“It is an issue right now,” said Lyn, who has been in the solar business for the past 15 years. “It would be good if we move down to five or six per cent.”
To compound the issue, he said the bureaucracy in obtaining solar loans can be cumbersome.
“We just have too many hoops to jump through with the financial institutions when trying to get access to financing,” Lyn lamented.
He also said that often, a significant number of documents are required by the banks, which can be very time consuming for borrowers to obtain.