Local solar industry faces cuts to its tax credits
The local solar industry is bracing for the potential impact of a new mandate where the price for solar could go up 30% should tax credits get wiped from current clean energy incentives, according to Autumn Johnson, executive director at Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association.
On Thursday, a tax bill was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and “repeals or phases out more quickly clean energy tax credits passed in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act during former President Joe Biden’s term,” the Associated Press reported. “Biden’s climate law has been considered monumental for the clean energy transition, but the House bill effectively renders moot much of the law’s incentives for renewable energy such as wind and solar power.”
Specifically to solar, the bill gets rid of tax credits for rooftop solar installments, the AP reported.
In addition, the Arizona solar industry faces a number of factors that aren’t in the trade’s favor, Johnson said.
High interest rates, low export rates — or the amount of money customers get to sell energy back — are negatives for the industry, she said.
There are also specific tariffs on component parts for solar as well as solar panels, Johnson said.
“In 2024, there was a very significant uptick in the bankruptcies for solar companies,” Johnson said.
Last June, Titan Solar, a one-time fast-growth solar installer based in Chandler, announced it was closing operations after failing to close on a sale of the company, according to multiple media reports.
Sunny Energy in Tempe and Sun Power also shuttered their doors, the executive director at Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association said.
Solar is the fastest, deployable energy source in a time where energy demand is increasing, said Chris Mejia, co-founder of Obodo Energy in Tempe.
Mejia worked at Sunny Energy before it closed.
In his current business, he does work in the commercial solar sector with carport ground mounts and rooftop solar, he said.
He disagrees with repealing solar credits and said the journey in the solar industry has not always been a smooth one.
All of his customers use tax incentives, the business owner said.
“The bill guts the entire (solar) industry,” Mejia said. “It basically shuts it down.”
Brent Ruffner
Lead News Reporter | Phoenix Independent
Journalism has fascinated Brent Ruffner since junior high school.
Since 2001, his stories have been published in newspapers from the Albuquerque to the Arizona and he has always had a knack for making sure his facts are right and his words are to the point.
Growing up, Brent watched as sports reporters covered his beloved Phoenix Suns, a team he followed since Charles Barkley first arrived in Phoenix via trade in 1992. Sports reporting was a dream back then.
But after gaining some writing experience, Brent found a love for news instead of covering different types of sports. In 2008, he moved to New Mexico and covered crime, schools and city beats all while holding elected officials accountable.
He covered stories that ranged from a DEA drug bust gone bad to an award-winning story on school lunches.
In Arizona, Brent was a freelance writer who covered everything from the importance of citrus in the state to Esteban owning a store in downtown Prescott.
Brent is a 2007 graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.