Vivint Solar expands into Rhode Island

Vivint Solar announced that it is expanding its services into Rhode Island, expecting to employ 10-20 employees in the state in the coming months. Through Vivint Solar, residents in Rhode Island can purchase a system outright or finance the system with monthly payments, either through one of the institutions Vivint Solar has relationships with or their preferred lender. Customers in Rhode Island will also be eligible to apply for any applicable utility-sponsored rebates or federal tax credits.

Vivint Solar expects  Vivint Solar now operates in 16 states (Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Utah) and Washington D.C.

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Inside Rhode Island solar market

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Rhode Island’s residential sector consumes more energy than its commercial, industrial and transportation sectors. Rhode Island residents who wish to install solar energy systems may be eligible to interconnect to the grid under traditional net metering or by participating in the Renewable Energy Growth Program, which offers attractive benefits to residential solar energy customers.

By opting into Rhode Island’s Renewable Energy Growth Program, the local utility, National Grid, assigns a per kilowatt-hour (kWh) credit for all electricity produced by the solar energy system at a premium rate for 15 or 20 years. These credits will first be used to offset the customer’s utility bill. After the customer’s utility bill is fully offset, the value for any remaining credits for the month will then be paid out to the customer. For customer-owned systems, a customer can currently expect to receive $0.3475 or $0.3085 credit per kWh respectively, which is well above the current utility rate. Through participation in this program, solar customers can pay off their system faster and save on years of clean, renewable energy.

— Solar Builder magazine

[source: http://solarbuildermag.com/news/vivint-solar-expands-into-rhode-island/]