Solar Incentives & Financing in Pennsylvania

Solar incentives

What type of solar incentives are available?

Several types of incentives can help you go solar.

Learn the basics

Pennsylvania SRECs

Pennsylvania offers Solar Alternative Energy Credits (SAECs). An SAEC is the functional equivalent of Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) in other states. Historically, the Pennsylvania market for these credits has been oversupplied. This is because Pennsylvania was one of the only states that allowed solar systems located outside its own borders to sell their credits into the state. This led to a massive oversupply of credits, depressing their monetary value. In a victory for solar energy and Pennsylvania ratepayers alike, the state moved to close its borders to out-of-state credits in fall 2017.  Moving forward, only solar systems installed in Pennsylvania can sell their credits into the state market.  You can find the most up-to-date credit market prices at SRECTrade.com.

Solar financing

Pennsylvania PACE

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs give property owners another tool to finance solar installations or other clean energy or efficiency-related investments. PACE financing is a loan that is attached to the property, rather than the property owner. This means it is paid back through an additional assessment on property taxes, rather than a separate bill, and if the property is sold, the new owner automatically assumes the remainder of the debt. This allows property owners to invest in solar panels and other multi-year payback improvements even if they expect to sell the property before the investment is fully paid off.

 In June 2018, Pennsylvania passed legislation to allow for C-PACE, which allows local governments to create PACE programs for commercial entities to use. Local governments have not yet introduced their own C-PACE programs yet, but the Keystone Energy Efficiency Alliance (KEEA) is leading a group of stakeholders to create model C-PACE legislation for local governments to adopt. To learn more about C-PACE in Pennsylvania and track the progress of local adoption, visit KEEA’s website.
Pennsylvania does not yet have enabling legislation for R-PACE, which would allow homeowners to take advantage of PACE financing.

In Pennsylvania, some installers will offer a percentage off the price of your system in exchange for your SAECs (SRECs).

In Allegheny County, AHILP provides low interest rates (1%) to some residents depending on where they live and income level for home improvements including solar.