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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone, and now for our climate story of the week. It's advice for how to get more solar energy into your life. On Sunday, as most of you heard, the Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which among other things, includes a $369 billion tag for energy and climate initiatives. Some of this money is intended to make solar panels more affordable for more Americans. Now, the Act must still pass a vote in the House, but it looks likely and if it does, Americans will be further incentivized to begin incorporating solar energy into our lives in more ways.

There are already some incentives at the state and local level in different places but the process of outfitting our homes for solar energy can seem daunting. How do we get started? What happens when it's cloudy? How exactly do we take advantage of these new possible federal incentives? Here to discuss and to give you advice is Noah Ginsburg, Co-Director of Programs at Solar One, which is a Green Energy Education Center in New York City. Noah, thanks for joining us, and welcome to WNYC.

Noah Ginsburg: Pleasure to be here. Thanks, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we invite your questions, especially, if you're asking for advice. Are you interested in installing solar panels at your home but you don't know how to start? Call and ask your question, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Can you start with the basic of the cost of switching to solar energy if your home, let's say a private house for the moment, has a traditional heating source?

Noah Ginsburg: Sure. Absolutely, Brian. The cost of installing solar today is more affordable than it's ever been. The costs have come down significantly over the last decade as the technologies improve as the companies doing this work have gotten more savvy and scaled up. To put solar on to a typical home in the United States today, typically, is going to cost anywhere to the tune of $15,000 to $30,000. That being said, there are a lot of financing options. Many people who install solar on their home, do it with a zero-down financing option like a lease, a power purchase agreement, or a low-interest loan.

Brian Lehrer: Do people go solar only or do they go solar with fossil fuel backup? How does it generally work?

Noah Ginsburg: When a homeowner or building owner installs solar, that is to offset their electricity bill. Traditionally, electricity is generated at large central power plants and delivered by the utilities. If you put solar on your own rooftop, you're generating your own solar power. You own it, you control it, and it directly reduces your reliance on electricity.

Brian Lehrer: There are solar buyback programs too, right? If you're generating solar energy in your home, that's energy that you don't have to take from the grid, from the power company, but they will also sometimes, buy excess energy from you. I've seen advertisements for that. How does that work?

Noah Ginsburg: Yes, that's right. If you install solar on your rooftop, you typically want to size your solar energy system to offset your annual electricity consumption. Solar is a variable resource so the sun is shining during the day, that's when you're going to get the majority of your electric generation. You're going to be injecting electric power into the grid, essentially running your meter backwards during the daytime, and then, at night and on those cloudy days, you draw power from the grid. You, basically, build a bank of credits on those nice sunny days that you can dip into in the winter and at night.

Brian Lehrer: Do people eventually because of that, make their $15,000 to $30,000 initial investment back or for the good of the planet, we just have to, as many of us who are willing to do it voluntarily, pay more for energy?

Noah Ginsburg: No. Basically, everybody who installs solar is saving money. Solar, if you purchase it, will typically pay for itself in the New York City Metro region, and anywhere from five to seven years is typical, that you would recoup that investment. There are state, local, and federal incentives that help to accelerate that return on investment. Then, keep in mind that we have some of the highest electricity rates in the country so if you generate your own solar power, fundamentally, that's a really good investment.

Brian Lehrer: Pat in East Windsor, New Jersey, you're on WNYC. Hi, Pat. Do we have Pat in East Windsor?

Pat: Hello?

Brian Lehrer: Hi, now we've got you, Pat. I'm sorry. Start over, we didn't have you properly connected for a second there. Hi.

Pat: Oh, okay. Thanks. Hi. I have a historic home and the roof is [unintelligible 00:05:13] post-construction, it dates to the 1800s and I'm wondering about weight from a solar array on a roof like that. Would it handle it or is it a no-go?

Brian Lehrer: Noah, do you know?

Noah Ginsburg: Most buildings can handle the weight of a solar installation. Truthfully, solar is not that heavy and it's really a flexible technology. There are a lot of different ways that you can mount it. It does require some engineering but I wouldn't anticipate that would be the challenge. Another thing to be mindful of, if you have a historic home, is if there are any restrictions from your town. If it's a historic district, the aesthetics of it might be something to consider as well.

Brian Lehrer: Pat, I hope that's helpful. Ben in Freeport, you're on WNYC. Hi, Ben.

Ben: Hi, good morning. My question is this. I have an older house. I can't put an electric array on my roof but I certainly would be happy to put up a solar hot water unit. We've got houses all over the neighborhood and think about the hundreds and tenths of thousands of houses out here where you could basically, curtail energy use from say, April until October, because you could be using the sun to heat your hot water. Yet, none of that is available and there doesn't seem to be a huge interest from the solar companies in doing that. It would also be very inexpensive for people to have.

Noah Ginsburg: That's a really great and interesting point. In the early days, solar thermal systems that captured the sun's heat, were very popular but really, over the last 10, 15 years, as the cost of solar electric systems have come way down and because electricity is quite expensive, the solar industry has really shifted over, and the majority of solar companies today, primarily do solar electric installations.

Brian Lehrer: That informs the ability to do things like heating hot water.

Noah Ginsburg: Yes, I think it's certainly still possible. It's slightly more complicated. A solar hot water system is a thermal system and a plumbing system. I guess my only advice would be that if you do move forward with a solar hot water system, just make sure that you're working with a reputable contractor who has good references, has done projects in your area, and really understands plumbing.

Brian Lehrer: Mark in Jersey City has a personal success story, I think. Mark, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Mark: Hi there. I live in Jersey City just across the river. I live in a historic district and have had solar for 10 years now on my roof. It basically works out to a slightly net-negative utility bill over the course of the year, maybe a few hundred dollars negative. It's worked out terrifically and I have this old house that was built in the 1860s with the solar array on top, no problem. The big issue is, you've got to have a really good survey before you commit to doing it because some buildings might have more shadow on the roof than others and that's really key to having a successful install.

Brian Lehrer: Mark, good tip, thank you very much. I'm going to go right to Luvo in Morristown. You're on WNYC. Hi, Luvo.

Luvo: Hi, how are you today?

Brian Lehrer: Good.

Luvo: I have a two-part question, please. I investigated already solars for my roof. I own the house. I'm still a little bit torn between the idea of buying, which is a lot of upfront costs versus leasing the system. Then, the second part of the question, in New Jersey, do you know if there's any incentives as far as tree pruning or tree cutting? Because I get a shade in the morning only, a partial shade on the roof.

Brian Lehrer: Two good questions. How about leasing versus buying, Noah?

Noah Ginsburg: That's a great question, a really important question. Ultimately, it does depend on an individual or a building's preferences and needs. Doing a lease is a good option if you don't have money to put in upfront and you don't want to take out a loan. It also limits any maintenance that you might need to do, where that becomes the responsibility of the solar company.

Again, solar doesn't really require a lot of maintenance. I don't think that's such a big consideration ownership does deliver more long-term savings to a homeowner. One nice thing about leases is that again it's no money out of pocket and a lot of leases do have buyout options. One thing that you could consider if you're on the fence is look closely at your contract and ask the salesperson if there's an option to buy out the lease after 5, 10 years and then you could become the owner of the system that way.

I'm not familiar with any incentives that are available for tree pruning, but you are raising a really good point which is that a key ingredient for generating solar power is the sun. To determine if your building is good for solar, one of the first things to do is just to basically look and see if your rooftop is shaded. The majority of the work that we do at Solar One is with building owners in New York City, tree shade is sometimes an issue in the outer boroughs, but there's also considerations for are you right next to a taller building?

Brian Lehrer: Luvo, thank you I hope that's helpful. Now all the calls that we've gotten so far from people who live in private homes, single-family homes it sounds like but you're using the word buildings. Can people who live in apartment buildings, have their landlords or if you are the landlord or in co-ops, do anything with what we think of as New York City area apartment buildings and solar energy?

Noah Ginsburg: Absolutely. My nonprofit Solar One through tier come solar program principally focus on these kinds of buildings, we runs the gamut. We've worked with a lot of homeowners but a lot of our work is with multifamily buildings, with co-ops, and condos, with rental buildings, a lot of work with affordable housing including getting solar onto public housing here in the city.

Solar works, it's really a great investment the payback period of five to seven years is typical for a homeowner, but for a private landlord, it could be even faster than that because they get additional incentives. Right now is really a great time to go solar regardless of what type of building you happen to be in, New York State just increased their incentives for solar this summer. Even before the Inflation Reduction Act passed the Senate, we were billing this as the summer of solar because it's really the best that the incentives have ever been.

Brian Lehrer: We had that caller before who was comparing the advantages of buying or leasing solar panels. Here's Mindy, a realtor in Montclair who has something to say about that, Mindy you're on WNYC, Hi.

Mindy: Hi, okay, thanks. I have just been trying to sell a house with solar panels and it's become extremely complicated, it's not as easy as it seems to sell. If you lease you have to sell the lease to the person who's buying and it's a lot of money and you don't know whether they're 10 years old. If you want to do your roof over you have to pay a certain amount of money to the company to take off let's say 16 panels and put the 16 panels back on, that's if you own it. If you're trying to transfer a lease, it's like a 25,000, it's a lot of money and it's very complicated and it gets in the way of selling the house.

Brian Lehrer: Mindy, do you recommend then, as a realtor having gone through these sale experiences, that it's better to buy the solar panels if you can than to lease?

Mindy: I think this is a horrible thing to say, but I wouldn't put them on my house, it's too complicated when I want to go to sell my house. I think you have to really figure out that you're going to stay in that house for a really long time and that if you want to do your roof over because it only lasts a certain amount of time, it's going to be much more expensive than having the roof done.

Brian Lehrer: Mindy, thank you very much. Noah, what do you say?

Noah Ginsburg: I feel her. I guess I'll start by saying, Mindy, I'm sorry to say that you're having a rough go of it with this home sale. In my experience, having worked for residential solar companies that do roof leases, transferring a lease. generally speaking, is very straightforward. Solar roof leases typically they're providing guaranteed utility bill savings to a home so a buyer, generally speaking, would've no issue adopting a lease.

The solar company typically guarantees the output of the system for the duration of the lease so I haven't heard that before, but I think it's an interesting point. On the general point about how you wouldn't put solar on your roof, I guess what I would say to that is I think that every home in this country is going to put solar on the roof and the question is how soon?

New York State has really been a leader and New York City's really been a leader best in climate legislation in 2019 that's been really jump-starting the market in a really exciting way. With this federal support and the Inflation Reduction Act really mimicking a lot of the best things in state and local climate policy, I think we're going to see solar on every rooftop in the country.

Brian Lehrer: We're going to end with Damien in Bridgeport who has a question about whether a certain aspect is covered by these new incentives that seem to be coming down the pike from the Inflation Reduction Act. Damien, you're on WNYC, we have about 20 seconds for you.

Damien: Hi, Brian, thanks. First-time caller. I'm remodeling my home and considering to put on a Tesla shingle-style solar roof mainly because I don't like the aesthetics of solar panels. Do you have any experience with this roof and do you know if it's covered under the new legislation?

Brian Lehrer: Damien, thank you. Noah, in your last answer here, we have under a minute, include how people should start, in general, to take advantage of whatever local or maybe coming down the pike national incentives there are.

Noah Ginsburg: Sure. Solar shingles, I don't personally have experience working on projects with solar shingles, they would be covered with the new added incentives for solar that are included in the Inflation Reduction Act. I guess one thing I'll say is that solar is more affordable and more accessible than ever before. We talked a lot on this segment about rooftop solar for homeowners, but solar works for affordable housing, it works for multi-family buildings, co-ops and condos.

Solar even works for renters, I'm a renter and I enrolled in a local community solar project that provided me with guaranteed bill saving so the technology is there. The state and local government has really been a leader and with federal support, I think we're going to see a lot of adoption happening quickly. If folks are interested in solar, there are a lot of resources that are available online. If you're a building owner in New York City, the New York City Accelerator Program is a great resource that'll provide free assistance where I partner on their summer of solar campaign. If you're interested in solar in New York City, you can obviously reach out to us at Solar One.

Brian Lehrer: That's our climate story of the week on the Brian Lehrer Show advice for going solar, especially in light of the incentives about to come down in the Inflation Reduction Act. We thank Noah Ginsburg, Co-Director of Programs at Solar One, a Green Energy Education Center in New York City. Noah, thank you so much.

Noah Ginsburg: Thank you, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, more in a minute.

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