The 3 Financial Incentives with Todd Baylson

Summary

And what solar does is, there’s kind of three main buckets of value because of public policy that’s been really been pro-solar, but it hasn’t done enough to grow the industry enough. There’s some tax benefits and then there’s, that’s the first benefit or bucket of benefits, there’s tax benefits, then the second benefit is what’s called the avoided costs. So instead of paying the utility for your energy, you bought a solar system and you paid for it either with debt or with cash, and you’re not buying the energy that the solar produces from the utility anymore. You already bought it. And then there’s a bunch of other sort of policy instruments.

What we have in Pennsylvania’s called an SREC, but they’re generally known as RECs. They’re renewable energy credits, which is a mechanism, another policy mechanism, to incentivize solar, and that’s the third bucket. So you have tax benefits, avoided costs, and RECs, and generally speaking, those are the reasons that people buy solar and they buy it with either debt or with cash.

You know, they finance it or they have money for it. And typically what people are doing is, it’s just like with a refi or something like that, you know, they’re saying, I’m paying this every month to a utility for my energy and I could buy the solar or finance the solar, and I’m gonna look at if I pay cash, how many months or years will it take for that payment to pay off compared to paying what I’m paying every year?

If they’re financing or borrowing money, they’re gonna look at the cost of the debt compared to their utility bill and ascertain if it offers a good value to them. And then, the other two buckets of value, the tax benefits and the RECs kind of get added into the mix. So you’re saying to yourself, am I gonna be financially better off having bought solar than paying the utility?

And there’s a strong value proposition for solar in almost all scenarios. But if you’re paying the utility a lot, solar’s gonna look much, much better. And if you’re paying the utility not a lot, then solar’s gonna look less good than it otherwise would.

About Todd Baylson

Todd Baylson is an experienced professional with a background in urban planning, policy, and business development. He graduated with a BA in Urban Studies from the University of Vermont in 1998 and went on to earn an M.C.P. in Urban Planning from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004.

Baylson has held several leadership positions throughout his career, including Associate Director of Governmental Affairs, Planning, and Policy at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society from 2005 to 2012, and Policy Director for Office of Philadelphia City Councilman-At-Large Bill Green from 2012 to 2014. In these roles, he focused on improving the quality of life for city residents through fiscal discipline, government accountability, and the application of technology.

From 2014 to 2016, Baylson worked as a Technology Procurement Advocate for the City of Philadelphia Office of Innovation & Technology. In this role, he made the procurement and contracting processes more sensible and attractive to small and medium-sized technology firms.

Currently, Baylson is the Partnerships, Policy and Solar Projects Manager at Solar States, a Philadelphia-based solar installation and education firm. He is responsible for overseeing the company’s partnerships, policy initiatives, and solar projects. Baylson is passionate about sustainable energy and environmental advocacy, and he continues to make meaningful contributions to the communities he serves.

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