Rebates for installing Solar in WA

I've been sitting on this post for a while, I finally got around to cleaning it up and getting it out.

The Seattle Times had a few articles on installing solar panels in the paper a while ago, which I was happy to see. One of the articles had this little nugget that was news to me:

"...the state has new production incentives for utilities to pay solar owners 54 cents per kilowatt produced from solar modules and inverters (which synchronize electricity collected to the grid) made in Washington. For a 3-kW system, that would be roughly $2,000 a year, Nelson said. (A new factory is being built in the state that should provide the modules later this year.)

"With those higher payments and other federal tax breaks and state incentives, owners can effectively recoup their investment in seven years once the factory-built panels are available in our state, Nelson said."

Some further research reveals the following:

• Your system must, of course, be grid-tied
• The 54 cents/kwh payment expires on June 30 of 2014, so if you acted right now to get a 3000 kw system installed on your home (to the tune of $20-30k), you could potentially recoup $2k/year for the next 6 years only.
• The 54 cents/kwh is based on a base rate of 15 cents/kwh, with some multipliers tacked on (2.4x if you have solar panels manufactured in WA, and 1.2x if you have an inverter manufactured in WA).
• The rebate payment is capped at $2k per year, so you wouldn't benefit from installing a system large enough to generate more than $2k in rebate money (I'm not saying you shouldn't go big, of course...).
  

Outback Power Systems makes inverters in Arlington, WA. Outback formed a subsidiary called Silicon Energy (also based in Arlington) who is manufacturing solar panels there.

Here's a good explanation of the incentives: http://www.solarpowerrocks.com/washington/