We commend the department's effort to rejuvenate the solar energy industry in Pennsylvania. It's exciting to imagine our state now joining our New Jersey and New York neighbors, where solar energy has been expanding much more quickly for a number of years.

Also just like our neighbors, we want rooftop residential and commercial solar installations to provide over half or more of the solar energy capacity. Pennsylvania policy must make solar more affordable and accessible to a much greater number of homeowners and businesses.

So we encourage the department to emphasize to our legislators the following original ideas in the final plan:

“Increase access to capital by expanding availability of solar lending products to both residential and commercial projects to enable solar ownership.”

“Provide loan guarantees to lower interest rates and provide an incentive to deploy solar generation.”

“Encourage municipalities to offer PACE programs.”

It is important to grow our renewable electricity generation as quickly as possible. We understand the utilities will play a vital role. However, our families and small businesses deserve the opportunity to participate in a way that maximizes their energy savings. Policies that broaden their access should be given priority without necessarily sacrificing larger utility scale projects. Taxpayers can play a big role in meeting the conservative goal of getting 10% of our state's electricity from solar energy.