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November 20, 2009
Dear CT Solar Lease Program Installer,
Due to your hard work in selling the CT Solar Lease Program, to date we have fully
funded about 174 leases, approved funding for approximately 382 more leases and
have over 165 recent applicants applying for a solar lease in various stages of
development. To say the least, we are very pleased with the success of this program.
However, the program now stands to be fully subscribed in a matter of months; much
sooner than we had forecast.
With approximately 165 recent applications and 556 active installations which have
been fully approved, signed, and/or installed, we now have to be concerned with two
issues: 1) servicing such a large number of installations in a timely manner and,
2) bringing the program to an orderly close as we near our funding limits.
First, we currently have a backlog of installations waiting to be inspected that we will not
be able to inspect within two weeks after they have been witness tested by the
appropriate utility. This situation will only get worse as the more than 200 applications
that have achieved final lease approval enter their installation phase. We simply need
time to get these installations inspected. Second, when we designed this program, we
estimated that we had funding for approximately 1,000 leases with system sizes
averaging 5.2 kWstc. System sizes of leases funded and applications currently in our
pipeline are averaging about 7.2 kWstc. With system sizes larger than what was
forecasted, we now expect the program to fund about 820 leases, approximately 100
more than our current complete pipeline (165 recent applications and 556 active
installations).
Given the concerns mentioned above, the following measures will be instituted
immediately to continue the operation of the CT Solar Lease Program in a fair and
orderly manner.
1. A reservation system will be put in place for all “Final Approved” applications in
our pipeline that have yet to receive a rebate reservation letter from CCEF. All
such applications will receive a reservation number based on the time they were
approved (i.e. a lease approved in June will have a lower reservation number
than a lease approved in October). Rebate reservations will be given to
applicants in the order of their reservation number. A RESERVATION NUMBER
DOES NOT ASSURE THAT THE APPLICANT’S SYSTEM WILL BE FUNDED.
THE RESERVATION NUMBER IS A PLACE IN LINE TO RECEIVE FUNDING
AS LONG AS PROGRAM FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE.
Rebate letters committing CCEF rebate funding will be issued only after the final
inspection backlog of system installations has been reduced to a manageable
level. Under no circumstances will rebates be paid until a lease has been
executed and the three day rescission period has passed.
2. New, Review or “Approval Pending” applications will only enter the reservation
system once their application meets all requirements that make them eligible for
a lease (i.e. the application has received Final Approval status by CT Solar
Leasing).
3. Since our total pipeline indicates we are near our funding limit for this program,
effective on December 31, 2009, we temporarily will be putting the acceptance
of new applications under the CT Solar Lease Program on hold until the pipeline
reservation system is fully placed into service.
Either directly or through CT Solar Leasing, we will, of course, keep you fully informed
as to the status of the CT Solar Program pipeline. The above measures do not apply to
CCEF’s Solar PV Rebate Program, although we will be instituting a similar reservation
system for this program in the near future.
We thank you all for your efforts leading to the success of the CT Solar Lease Program
to date and for your cooperation in concluding the lease origination portion of the
program in a fair and orderly manner. The Program has been a tremendous success
due to your hard work.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Angela Perondi-Pitel |
