Massachusetts SMART Program 2026: Why Most Solar Installers Leave Homeowners $3,000+ on the Table Dave Simmer, NABCEP-trained solar designer with 15 years of South Shore experience, exposes common SMART enrollment mistakes that cost Massachusetts homeowners thousands in lost incentive credits.Scituate, MA - The Massachusetts SMART program (Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target) pays homeowners approximately $0.03 per kilowatt-hour produced over a guaranteed 10-year contract. For the average South Shore residential system, that's $3,500-$4,000 in predictable incentive income. Yet most installers treat SMART enrollment as an afterthought - a checkbox task they hand off to administrative staff. The result? Homeowners miss enrollment deadlines, get locked into suboptimal block rates, and fail to claim cap-exempt status that could improve queue positioning. "I've reviewed proposals from national installers that completely miss Massachusetts-specific nuances," said Dave Simmer, owner of Solar Dave MA. "They design systems for national metrics, not for how National Grid and Eversource actually allocate incentives in our region. My homeowners don't leave money on the table because I treat SMART as a core design input, not an afterthought." THE SMART PROGRAM MISTAKES SIMMER SEES REGULARLY: Mistake #1: Timing the enrollment wrong. The SMART program operates in "blocks" - each block has a set capacity. When a block fills, the next block opens at a lower incentive rate. Many installers don't monitor block status closely. Homeowners who could have enrolled in a higher-rate block end up in a lower one because their installer missed the queue. Cost: $500-$1,500+ over 10 years per system. Mistake #2: Ignoring cap-exempt status. Certain customer categories (municipal buildings, nonprofits, community solar subscribers) have exemptions from capacity caps. For residential customers in cap-constrained blocks, this matters less - but for commercial solar on public buildings or multi-tenant properties, missing cap-exempt designation can delay interconnection by months. Simmer regularly works on