Skyline Solar sounds like the kind of company Luke Skywalker might start. But the Force wasn’t with this particular company, which went out of business in 2024. And, within a couple years of purchasing solar panels from Skyline Solar around 2020, so as to be more independent, Happy Valley resident Christine Meadowcroft found herself in what she calls a solar panel rabbit hole.

The first indication of the “Alice in Wonderland” trouble ahead was when the tax spiel her solar panel salesman gave turned out to be quite misleading.

Meadowcroft and her husband had been told by their grinning Cheshire cat salesman that their $43,000 solar panel purchase would net them a significant tax refund, somewhere around $12,000. But, when they went to file their taxes, what they found out is that it’s a tax credit, not a refund. 

“I think I figured it out one time, and to actually qualify for that tax credit, we would have needed to make like $130,000 a year,” Meadowcroft said. “And we don’t make anywhere near that. I have three toddlers on one income, and we’re living literally, you know, hand-to-mouth.”