As the hoodie-bundled workers gathered their equipment in Tampa, it was less than 24 hours until the deadline.<\/p>\n
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For now, Steve Rutherford, founder and president of Tampa Bay Solar, and his employees focused on getting these final jobs completed sothey\u2019d still qualify for the discount. As one employee plucked one of the last Keurig pods from the office coffee bar, the morning felt less like a frantic scramble and more like the exhausted end to a long, deliberate push.<\/p>\n
\u201cSlow and steady wins the race,\u201d said Rutherford, a retired Navy SEAL. \u201cIt\u2019s not rush to failure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The solar industry is one constantly adapting to new technology, selling customers on the once-futuristic idea that they can power their homes without a utility company. Throughout the warehouse, though, was also a reminder of Tampa Bay\u2019s recent past: Hundreds of panels from homes destroyed by the 2024 hurricanes lay in stacks, which the company offered to store for displaced customers.<\/p>\n
But today, all that mattered was the present. Had they run this customer\u2019s credit card yet? Have the backordered roofing materials arrived? Rutherford\u2019s team, comprised largely of military veterans and immigrants, headed out on their final jobs of 2025.<\/p>\n
DeSantis names sponsor of bill striking \u2018climate change\u2019 from Florida law to utility board<\/a><\/p>\n To get in by the year\u2019s end, customers had to get on the list by September, Rutherford said. This final group included new homeowners, a Tampa Bay Lightning player (Rutherford declined to provide a name) and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.<\/p>\n At Castor\u2019s house, solar technician Dan Harmon worked on wiring the panel system into the meter monitored by Tampa Electric. The previous day, he and his team had climbed on the roof to draw a grid in yellow and orange chalk that they then replaced with metal mounts and rubbery roofing material cut into doughnuts. They used a propane torch to melt the tar on one side, then pressed the circles into place with a metal spade, like browning toast on a griddle.<\/p>\n Much of solar panel installation requires well-honed skills if it\u2019s to be done right, Rutherford said. That meant he wasn\u2019t able to rapidly hire more workers to meet the surging demand.<\/p>\n Horror stories have started circulating about homeowners who hired less reputable companies out of desperation to get the tax credit. The tales include shoddy jobs, untrained workers and outlandish promises from salespeople that could never be fulfilled.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m hearing more and more about lawsuits that are coming out for companies that had this rapid growth and took on more than they should\u2019ve,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate because it gives the industry a poor reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n Castor said she\u2019d been considering rooftop solar panels for a while, but the end of the program pushed her to act. Meanwhile, she and her staff are also working to determine the impacts to the city of Tampa, which has also installed solar panels on municipal buildings using the program.<\/p>\n Castor has been hearing from more and more residents concerned about their electric bills, which were particularly high in 2025<\/a> because of hurricane fees, a record-hot summer and rate hikes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t take a rocket scientist to figure out they\u2019re not going to decrease anytime soon,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what people across Tampa Bay are paying for electricity<\/a><\/p>\n Castor is hoping the panels will more than halve her electric bill, which have climbed higher than average because of a backyard koi pond and a heated pool. (Castor declined to disclose her exact bill amount, but Rutherford said water features like hers are \u201cenergy hogs.\u201d)<\/p>\n People in the solar industry for months have been confused about exactly how far along the rooftop solar projects needed to be on Dec. 31 to qualify for the tax credit.<\/p>\n The law reads that \u201cexpenditures made after December 31, 2025\u2033 are ineligible. But a related fact sheet<\/a> from the Internal Revenue Service, released after the law\u2019s passage, said the projects needed to be fully installed by the end of the year to qualify, not just paid for.<\/p>\n Rutherford said his teams were working to get all the projects as close to completed as possible by the deadline.<\/p>\n On Jan. 2, workers finished Castor\u2019s roof, the dark panels glimmering cobalt blue in the overcast light.<\/p>\n Even with the turbulence, Rutherford said he feels cautiously optimistic that Tampa Bay Solar will survive through 2026. He isn\u2019t so sure about some of his peers, and he\u2019s bracing for roughly half of Florida\u2019s solar companies \u2014 around 200 firms \u2014 to go under this year.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/f12b68563ebfc4b154551c72a2ab72a0.jpeg\"\/)
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