September 3 – Although federal and state governments have been promoting tax breaks for renewable energy for years, the green resources have remained largely inaccessible to people who can’t afford the high upfront costs.
New Mexico on Tuesday became the first state in the nation to implement coupon rebates for the purchase or installation of electrical appliances under a new federal rebate program.
The Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates program, or HEAR, provides state and tribal residents with savings of up to $14,000.
The rollout starts this week and includes rebates of up to $1,600 on insulation, airtightness and ventilation for low-income single-family homeowners.
In the fall, additional discounts will be given on appliances such as heat pumps, electrical panels and wiring, and electric stoves and furnaces. Then, tenants with a low or average income will also be eligible.
New Mexico is the third state in the country to launch the HEAR program, but the strategy of offering rebates so buyers don’t have to wait for tax credits, as rebate programs typically do, is unprecedented.
State and federal officials gathered at the Albuquerque union hall on Tuesday on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to announce the launch of the program.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the state can’t ask people to use greener energy if they can’t afford it, and that upfront rebates are a way to ensure “no one is ever left behind.”
“If you don’t have a point of sale, too many people are left out,” she said.
U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich’s Zero-Emission Homes Act is included in the federal Inflation Reduction Act, which includes the HEAR program. He said it’s great to see New Mexico leading the way.
“This not only makes the best solutions more accessible to the people who need them, but also makes their homes more comfortable and their energy bills more affordable,” said Heinrich, DN.M.
According to Lujan Grisham, electrification also helps address the problem of an aging electrical grid across the country.
“If we don’t reduce our consumption, we will miss most of the effective transition to cleaner energy,” she said.
David Turk, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, said this is just the beginning of a “clean energy revolution.”
“What’s happening here in New Mexico is really impressive,” Turk said.
The issue of high upfront costs for renewable energy and electrification remains a problem for many low- and middle-income communities, even with rebates. However, Turk said prices have already dropped dramatically and many people just need “a little extra help to get that installation up front.”
Turk visited the home of Albuquerque resident Glen Salas after the event. Salas recently had his windows insulated and has had solar panels for more than a decade. He hopes to upgrade his gas range to induction when it gets old enough to need replacing.
Salas said all the work on his home was done before the government offered tax breaks. He said the solar installation alone cost about $13,000.
“If you have the money, it makes perfect sense. It has paid for itself a long time ago,” Salas said.
During the launch, Heinrich said additional production will help reduce costs.
“It’s like when the first cell phones came out. They looked pretty ridiculous and they were really, really expensive. And every year they got cheaper as we produced more of them,” he said. “If you produce more heat pumps, the heat pumps get cheaper.”
And Lujan Grisham joined the conversation: the industry is becoming more competitive.
Heinrich said that as people hear more about the savings these programs provide, they will participate more.
“We’ve seen that with solar, where if someone in your neighborhood has solar, the likelihood that four or five or 10 people will have solar in a year increases dramatically,” he said. “And if people hear stories about, ‘I had a $300 electric bill; now it’s $100,’ that’s going to spread like wildfire and it’s a great hedge against inflation.”
The HEAR rebate application and information about other available rebates or credits can be found online at cleanenergy.nm.gov.
