Every year, Chuck commits to traveling to all62 counties in New York to meet with constituents.
Schumer visited the seven acre “William Sun” Solar Field, the largest solar installation in the Greater Rochester area, and stood with owners of local solar companies and elected officials to officially launch his push for an extension and change to the existing federal solar investment tax credit (ITC) to support jobs at solar companies like Wayne County-based Sustainable Energy Development (SED) and O’Connell Electric-owned Rochester Solar Technologies, along with Invictus Electrical in Victor, NY, Renewable Rochester in Webster, NY and others in the Finger Lakes region.
Schumer called for an extension of the vital solar investment tax credit. Currently the solar investment tax credit is scheduled to phase down from a 30 percent credit to a 10 percent credit after 2016. Secondly, Schumer called for changes to the current solar investment tax credit’s eligibility rules that do not allow business and developers who invest in solar systems to gain from the tax credit until the solar panels they install are “placed in service.” Schumer said that current rules create uncertainty for customers because they are not guaranteed a tax credit until a project is completed. In contrast, businesses have taken advantage of a major tax credit for wind energy soon after they begin construction of a wind project.