Homeowners in South Carolina have been quick to make the switch to Solar, cashing in on $5 million in solar rebates since the state enabled the program a little over a year ago.

“The response to the rebate program has been fantastic,” Duke Energy’s South Carolina State President Clark Gillespy told the Palmette Business Daily. “This shows our customers want options to help them participate in a sustainable solar energy marketplace.”

To date, approximately 750 residents and 35 commercial customers have signed up for the state’s rebate program, Act 236.

Act 236 offers solar homeowners that use Duke Energy a whopping $1 per a watt-dc rebate on systems of to 20 kw–reducing upfront solar costs by nearly $1,000 kw.

For solar homeowners that use the states other utlity company, South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G), such residents are able to receive approximately 4 cents per kWh or about or about $250 per year for a typical 5-kW solar system.

While South Carolina’s rebate program is one of the more cushy ones being offered in America, the state has a minsicule Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) of 2 percent. This means that utility companies are only required to source 2 percent of their electricity from clean, renewable sources like solar panels–which isn’t much.

For residents switching to solar in South Carolina, there’s good money to be had, trouble is, no one is sure how long the incentives will last. For residents using SCE&G, the incentive amount is scheduled to drop by a penny each time a few new megawatts are installed. At the current rate of installation, that puts the time frame for getting higher priced paybacks at a little over a year.

For those residents considering taking advantage of their rooftop and eventually turning the extra space into a profitable resource that produces energy for the grid, Go Green Solar has experts that can give you a free quote and estimate of how much money you can get back with rebates, tax incentives and net metering programs. Call (866) 798-4435 for more information.