The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) announced it is launching a two-year pilot program for low- to moderate-income households, offering free solar panels or cost assistance, depending on eligibility.
Interested low-income households must first apply for installation services through the DNREC’s Weatherization Assistance Program, a cost-free program that improves residential energy efficiency through weatherproofing and other home improvements. Homes that qualify can receive a free solar installation of up to 4.0 kW.
Households that are classified as moderate-income can receive a solar installation 70% covered by the assistance program, and 30% is paid by the homeowner, for systems up to 6.0 kW in capacity.
Contractors approved by DNREC for the program include CMI Solar & Electric, KW Solar Solutions, and Clean Energy USA.
The low-income qualifications for household size are as follows:
| 1 | $25,520 |
| 2 | $34,480 |
| 3 | $43,440 |
| 4 | $52,400 |
| 5 | $61,360 |
| 6 | $70,320 |
| 7 | $79,280 |
| 8 | $88,240 |
*For families with more than eight persons, add $8,960 for each additional person.
The moderate-income qualifications for household size are as follows:
| New Castle | Kent | Sussex | |
| 1 | $59,050 | $43,250 | $47,050 |
| 2 | $67,450 | $49,400 | $53,800 |
| 3 | $75,900 | $55,600 | $60,500 |
| 4 | $84,300 | $61,750 | $67,200 |
| 5 | $91,050 | $66,700 | $72,600 |
| 6 | $97,800 | $71,650 | $78,000 |
More details on the program can be found here.
Solar incentives in Delaware
Delaware benefits from a few solar incentives in addition to the federal solar Investment Tax Credit, which offers a credit to taxes for 26% of the cost of the equipment installed.
The state offers a full retail rate for net metering, which means the utility will pay homeowners for their excess solar-generated electricity the same rate that homeowners pay for grid-supplied power.
Customers of Delmarva Power are eligible for a cash rebate from the utility of $0.70 per watt of solar generating capacity installed up to 50 kW, up to a maximum of $6,000. The average solar array in the United States is about 8.5 kW.
Customers of Delaware Electric Cooperative can receive $0.50/W of solar power installed (up to 5 kW), and $0.20/W for any additional solar capacity.
A complete list of solar incentives available to Delaware residents can be found here.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.