Longtime Village resident goes solar

Rusty Chinnis joined an ultra-exclusive club last week: homes in Longbeach Village equipped with solar panels.

Installed by Solar Source, a solar contractor in the Tampa Bay area, Chinnis’s home now has 27 new solar panels. The panels harness the sun’s energy to generate electricity.

“I’ve always wanted to do it because it just seemed the right thing to do,” Chinnis said. “It’s a pretty awesome system. They have apps on your phone so you can monitor all the panels, it’s quite amazing technology.”

Chinnis has been living in the village since the early 1980s. He said seeing a couple friends of his who were happy with their solar panels helped lead him to putting in some of his own.

“It’s good for the pocket, it’s good for the planet, what’s not to like?” – Rusty Chinnis 

Having solar panels saves money in the long run, too, Chinnis said. He added that his final bill after tax credits for the 27 panels was less than $15,000.

“From what I understand it’s a five-year payout and then we have free electricity,” Chinnis said. “It’s good for the pocket, it’s good for the planet, what’s not to like?”

A federal tax credit lets people deduct 30 percent of the cost of implementing a solar energy system from their federal taxes. This tax credit begins to sunset in 2020, creeping downward until it’s 10 percent from 2022 on. Chinnis is glad to be getting the 30 percent deduction.

Chinnis said he doesn’t know of anyone else in the village with solar panels, and only knows of one person in Longboat Key with such panels. So why, if Chinnis’s anecdotal evidence is true, do so few people have solar panels in the area?

“I don’t think that people really understand the technology or realize how sophisticated it’s gotten now,” Chinnis said. “That’s another reason I do it, just to make more people aware of it.”