By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
TAMPA — With significant federal tax breaks for purchasing rooftop solar power, electric vehicles and energy-efficient home improvements set to expire, solar power advocates gathered in Tampa last week to urge those considering making such purchases to do so right now.
President Donald Trump’s signature “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law on July 4, significantly changes the clean energy tax credits created three years earlier under Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, and advocates during a press conference organized by Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor couldn’t pretend to argue otherwise.
“This is a body blow,” said Bill Johnson, president and founder of Brilliant Harvest LCC in Sarasota and president of the Florida Solar Energy Industries Association.
“It’s a bit of a funeral for the industry,” added a somewhat glum Steve Rutherford, president and CEO of Tampa Bay Solar.
The biggest blow to the solar industry in Florida (and the country) in the legislation is the removal by the end of this year of the 30% tax break for individuals who buy rooftop solar panels.
“I cannot stress how dreadful it is to know that this industry is going to suffer in the coming months,” said Rutherford, who acknowledged that business has never been better since Floridians have become aware what the bill does in terms of rooftop solar.
“Since the bill destroyed the industry and destroyed the tax credit, we’ve seen a rush, an influx of customers that we’ve never seen,” he said. “I’ve gotten 100 customers in the last month — in the first four months of this year I didn’t get 100 customers.”
Rutherford added that the rooftop solar industry in Florida doesn’t generally move at such a furious pace, and warned potential customers intending to take advantage of that tax break to look for highly qualified installers.
“If you have folks that are ramping up that quickly, you’re going to lose some of the quality that goes with it,” he stressed.
Ceding leadership
A significant concern with the new law is that it takes away the leadership that the U.S. has shown on solar power and concedes it to China, which Johnson said was installing 100 solar panels every second. “Just do the math,” he said. “That’s an astounding figure.”
Growth in the solar power sector is not going away in the U.S., he continued, but it will slow down significantly, “and that’s a very, very sad thing.” His company has already signed contracts with clients who understand that they won’t earn any tax credits, but still feel it’s a worthy energy investment.
The bill also kills the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit by the end of this year. That credit takes up to $2,000 off the purchase of heat pumps, water heaters, and biomass stoves. It also removes a $1,200 tax credit off home upgrades like new insulation, doors and windows.
The new measure ends federal tax credits of up to $7,500 for buying and leasing a new electric vehicle and up to $4,000 for a used vehicle by Sept. 30.
“If you were going to use those tax credits to help make those home improvements more energy efficient and put money back in your pocket, the time is now to act,” said Castor.
Johnson conceded that he couldn’t spin the notion that the new federal legislation was good for the solar industry in Florida, but asserted that the “bigger message here is that solar power in the state of Florida is not going anywhere.”
On a commercial level, that’s true. Although Florida still relies on natural gas for 75% of its energy needs (a larger proportion from one source than in any other state), investor-owned utilities did install the second-biggest solar power capacity in the country last year, behind only Texas.
While solar power provides only 8% of the state’s existing portfolio, that figure is expected to increase over the next decade, with the total proportion of renewable energy in Florida expected to reach 28% by 2032, primarily from the addition of new solar generation, according to a report published earlier this year by the Florida Public Service Commission.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: in**@************ix.com. Banner photo: A worker installs solar panels on a rooftop (IStock image).
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