30 Puts Us Over 1 Thousand Dollars

Those of us in Pennsylvania are fortunate to have the ability to sell the energy credits (SRECs) created by our solar panels. 

A Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) adds value beyond the electricity savings you get from a solar system. You automatically earn them when you produce solar energy for your home — 1 SREC for every 1 MWh (1,000 kWh) of energy produced.

To have that ability:

  1. you need to own (not lease thru a PPA) your solar energy system, 

  2. you need to have kept the rights to sell your SRECs, 
      (installers might offer an upfront discount so they have those rights instead) 

  3. you need to register for the Pennsylvania marketplace. 

Pay me now or pay me later?

When we first considered whether to take the solar installer’s discount, or retain the right to trade our own SRECs, they were only trading for $10 each. Even at that amount, we would have passed the breakeven on the $150 discount after about 30 to 36 months, since it also cost $150 to register for SREC sales with Pennsylvania. ‘Back of the napkin’ math: 30 x $10 = $300. We were willing to wait for the breakeven, and lo and behold, the value of SRECs has risen since then, to their current value of $47 in Pennsylvania! 

As of October 2022, our system had produced 29 SRECs:

Lifetime production 

While filing our monthly lifetime production with SRECtrade (broker) this morning, I realized that 30th payment would put our payments for SREC trades over $1,000. So even if you consider the $150 discount we forfeited, plus the cost of registering with Pennsylvania to trade our SRECs, we are still $700 ahead in less than 5 years. If SREC values remain at $47 each, and we sell 9 more SRECs in 2023, as we have in both 2021 & 2022, this year’s trades should net us almost $400. 

“Solar Energy for the Win!”

My recent blog shares additional details about our solar energy payoffs, and what it has meant to our electric bills, in the face of increasing energy costs. 

Find the finer details on our solar energy production and SREC production in the table below: 

Make mine sunny side up!  Bob