solar incentive programs
achieving Solar Thermal
Market transformation
tOP: heLIODyNe; INset: heLIODyNe; bOttOm: aDrOIt sOLar aND VaILLaNt sOLar
42 November/December 2010 SOLAR TODA Y solartoday.org
Solar water heating (SWH) is not a new technology. The first commer- cial system was marketed in 1896. Despite this, the solar thermalmarket has barelygrown in the United States for about 25 years. Why is this? And
what will it take to make installing SWH systems
a common practice? What will be the benefits to
the consumer and to society once that market
transformation is achieved?
California’s response to these questions is a
$350 million incentive program for SWH systems called the California Solar Initiative (CSI)
Thermal Program. The program aims for complete market transformation, and much research
was done to lay the groundwork for success.
2007 through July 2010 in the San Diego Gas
& Electric (SDG&E) territory and identified
industry barriers to solar thermal adoption.
cost, Permitting among barriers
The California Public Utilities Commission
(CPUC) started by creating the Solar Water
Heating Pilot Program (SWHPP) in 2007 to test
the solar thermal market and evaluate whether it
would be cost effective to offer a S WH incentive
program statewide. The SWHPP ran from July
The first barrier we identified was lack of
consumer knowledge about SWH technology,
as SWH often stands in the shadow of solar elec-
tric or photovoltaic (PV) systems. Because the
general public equates solar with PV and does
not recognize the difference between PV and
