The majority of San Antonio’s rooftop solar rebates are going to 10 companies, while the projects are concentrated in newer and wealthier neighborhoods.
San Antonio’s city-owned utility company, CPS Energy, issued payments for 2,976 rooftop solar rebates from Feb. 1, 2016, to Feb 6, 2017, data obtained by the Business Journal shows.
Forty-four companies received rebates for rooftop solar projects installed in CPS Energy’s service area, and nearly two-thirds of the them went to the following 10 companies:
- Vision Solar
- Premier Solar Solutions
- Advanced Solar & Electric
- CAM Solar
- Wells Solar
- ERUS Energy
- Apex Home Energy Savings
- South Texas Solar Systems
- Ecolectrics
- Centrair Electric
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Provo, Utah-based Vision Solar topped the list with payments for 244 rebates, followed by Henderson, Nevada-based Premier Solar Solutions with 241 and San Antonio-based Advanced Solar & Electric with 240.
Two of the top 10 companies — Vision Solar and Grandbury, Texas-based Apex Home Energy Savings LLC — are no longer listed as certified rooftop solar contractors under CPS Energy’s rebate program. The same is true for the No. 15 company on the list— Stephenville, Texas-based Air Wind & Solar Inc.
Those three companies had disputes with CPS Energy that ended with them being removed from the rooftop solar contractors list. More details about those disputes will be released in “The Rebate Debate,” which is the cover story for the Business Journal’s April 14 issue.
In the meantime, a map of the solar rebates released by CPS Energy reveals that the majority of the rooftop solar rebates were issued for projects in newer and wealthier neighborhoods in north and northwest Bexar County.
A recent report from CPS Energy’s Save for Tomorrow Energy Plan, or STEP Program, analyzed the data by city council districts. Newer and wealthier neighborhoods in Districts 6 through 10 accounted for nearly thee-quarters of the rooftop solar projects in San Antonio.
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