Joplin, Mo Rebate

Empire District Electric Co. could start offering rebates to the owners of qualifying solar systems in 10 to 30 days.
The actual date when applications will be accepted by the company will depend on how quickly the Missouri Public Service Commission can act on a motion for expedited treatment that was filed Tuesday by the company.

The rebate for approved systems installed in Empire's service territory in Missouri between Jan. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2014, will get a $2 per watt rebate, the maximum allowable under Missouri's Renewable Energy Standard.
Those who file immediately and get their systems installed by June 30 of this year will get a rebate of $1.50 per watt. Those who file sometime this year and get their system installed by June 30, 2016, will get a $1 per watt rebate. The rebate will decrease to 50 cents per watt in 2017-2019. By 2020, the rebate would fall to 25 cents per watt.
To receive a rebate, an Empire customer in Missouri must submit to the company a net metering application and a solar rebate application. The applications and a required affidavit will be available from the company's website — www.empiredistrict.com — after the PSC has ruled on Empire's motion for expedited treatment of the tariff. The applications must be mailed to the company to provide a postmark date.
The commercial and noncommercial rebates will be available on a first-come, first-served basis while funds are available. How much money will be available will be subject to an annual 1 percent rate impact cap that the company did not disclose in its tariff. The system must be installed on the customer's premises for at least 10 years.
Rebates will be offered for new solar systems that range in size from 500 watts to 25,000 watts. The systems must be approved by Empire field inspectors before the rebate application is granted. In Joplin, a building permit to install the system is required and must pass city inspection.
Until Feb. 10, the company had an exemption from the solar provisions of Proposition C, which Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved in 2008.
Proposition C, also known as Missouri's Renewable Energy Standard, required that Missouri’s investor-owned utilities get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by 2021 and offer rebates to customers wishing to install solar equipment. Two of the state’s investor-owned utilities, Ameren Missouri in St. Louis and Kansas City Power & Light, began offering solar incentives in 2010. The Missouri Coalition for the Environment estimates that the companies have supplied more than $175 million in solar incentives.


Before the statewide vote on the renewable energy standard, Empire District Electric Co., based in Joplin, secured that 15 percent threshold by investing in two wind farms in Kansas. The company persuaded two state lawmakers to advance a bill exempting it from the solar energy requirements, arguing that it had already met the renewable energy standard through those wind investments. Renew Missouri, a nonprofit organization, challenged the exemption before the Missouri Supreme Court. The group argued that the exemption was invalid because it was a deliberate action to help one utility avoid providing solar rebates to its customers.
The court, in a 5-2 vote on Feb. 10, found that the law granting the exemption was unconstitutional and that Empire must begin offering solar rebates to all of its eligible customers in Missouri.
The court ruled that the solar exemption created for Empire “was repealed by the passage of Proposition C” because Proposition C was passed after the bill. Secondly, the court decided that lawmakers couldn’t amend a ballot initiative through legislation before an initiative had been passed because that would infringe on the constitutionally protected initiative rights of the people.
Cost recovery
Empire District Electric Co. on Tuesday said it will eventually seek cost recovery in the form of a rate increase from all of its customers for the rebates approved under the new program

I am going to talk to them. Since mine is Installed by me overtime got to see if i get approval