In addition to new tech, we have to get the policy right in three key areas:

First, regulators can offer a special “electric” rate for customers who add heat pumps, EV chargers, or other electric technology. This electric rate essentially gives customers a discount on their electricity bill when they replace fossil fuel-powered systems with electric alternatives. Under Maine’s recently approved pilot electricity rates for households with EVs or heat pumps, the price of electricity is 40% lower, which helps create a clear payback for customers choosing to electrify. This should be a model approach for other states to follow.

Second, policymakers can cut the red tape associated with installing solar. In Australia, for instance, solar is ⅓ the cost compared to the US, and a lot of that is due to regulations. Permitting in Australia can take no more than a day, while that same process can extend up to six months in the US. To address this, the NREL-developed SolarAPP+ automates the plan review and process for issuing permits. Several municipalities in California and Arizona have already adopted SolarAPP+. States should encourage or mandate wide adoption.

Third, to accelerate electrification, states can take a page from the solar industry’s playbook and distill the value proposition down to simple calculations and paybacks. The ideal way to do that is to make it easy for customers to stack incentives from the federal government, state, and utility. Put simply, a customer or installer should be able to fill out one online form and access all available rebates at once. This is one of a series of recommendations made by Advanced Energy United and Rewiring America as state energy offices begin to plan out how to deploy IRA incentives.

With startups working to reduce costs and hassle and states pursuing policies that encourage both solar and electrification to flourish, we can avoid intra-industry food fights and focus on our common objective: rapid and affordable decarbonization.