WHAT IS A COMMUNITY SOLAR FRANCHISE - Renewables Worldwide (800) 480-4751

WHAT IS A COMMUNITY SOLAR FRANCHISE https://solarfranchiser.com/renewables-franchise/f/what-is-a-community-solar-franchise

Community Solar Could Fill A Market Void — But Regulatory And Technical Gaps Remain https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2022/02/21/community-solar-could-fill-a-market-void---but-regulatory-and-technical-gaps-remain/

How to Harness Solar Energy for Good and Profit. This advancement is known as community solar. It's essentially a solar power plant whose electricity is shared by multiple households, companies or institutions. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/336968

Community Solar SEIA.org

Today, many American households and businesses do not have access to solar because they rent, live in multi-tenant buildings, have roofs that are unable to host a solar system, or experience some other mitigating factor.

Community solar provides homeowners, renters, and businesses equal access to the economic and environmental benefits of solar energy generation regardless of the physical attributes or ownership of their home or business. Community solar expands access to solar for all, including in particular low-to-moderate income customers most impacted by a lack of access, all while building a stronger, distributed, and more resilient electric grid.

Community solar refers to local solar facilities shared by multiple community subscribers who receive credit on their electricity bills for their share of the power produced. This model for solar is being rapidly adopted nationwide.

Quick Community Solar Facts

There are 41 states, plus D.C., with at least one community solar project on-line, with 4.9 gigawatts installed cumulatively through Q2 2022.
At least 19 states and D.C. have recognized the benefits of shared renewables by encouraging their growth through policy and programs (see IREC shared renewables scorecard).
The next five years will see the U.S. community solar market add more than 4.3 gigawatts of total capacity.

What is Community Solar?

Community solar allows residents, small businesses, organizations, municipalities and others to receive credit on their electricity bills for the power produced from their portion of a solar array, offsetting their electricity costs.

Community solar allows for equal access to the economic and environmental benefits of solar energy generation regardless of the physical attributes or ownership of an individual’s home or business. In other words, if you can’t install solar directly on your property, community solar can be a good option for accessing the savings and other benefits solar provides.

Community solar facilities are usually less than five megawatts (MW) of electrical capacity and vary in the number of acres affected. Unlike residential housing and commercial development on a sold-off farm parcel, community solar installations are generally on leased land, and well-designed systems can be returned to their original state.

Core Principles for Community Solar

SEIA promotes policies, programs and practices for community solar that adhere to the following principles:

Allow all consumers the opportunity to participate in and directly economically benefit from the construction and operation of new clean energy assets.
Provide equal access for developers to build and operate community shared renewable energy systems and interconnect those systems to the serving utility’s grid.
Incorporate a fair bill credit mechanism that provides subscribers with an economic benefit commensurate with the value of the long-term, clean, locally-sited energy produced by community shared renewable energy projects.
Support the participation of diverse customer types in renewable energy markets, and encourage customer choice with providers, product features, and attributes to catalyze innovation and best serve customers.
Provide assurance of on-going program operations and maintenance to ensure overall quality, that the facility lasts for decades, and that customer participation is protected. Safeguard the continuity of program benefits to protect customers and developers’ investment.
Ensure full and accurate disclosure of customer benefits and risks in a standard, comparable manner that presents customers with performance and cost transparency.
Comply with applicable securities, tax, and consumer protection laws to reduce customer risk and protect the customer.
Encourage transparent, non-discriminatory utility rules on siting, and interconnecting projects, and collaboration with utilities to facilitate efficient siting and interconnection.
Maintain a 360-degree view of community shared renewable energy market and ensure a beneficial role for all parties in the partnerships forged between subscriber, developer, and utility.

Other Resources:

The Coalition for Community Solar Access: The Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA) is a national Coalition of businesses and non-profits working to expand customer choice and access to solar for all American households and businesses through community solar. Their mission is to empower every American energy consumer with the option to choose local, clean, and affordable community solar. They work with customers, utilities, local stakeholders, and policymakers to develop and implement policies and best practices that ensure community solar programs provide a win, win, win for all, starting with the customer.

Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC): IREC is a leading group in ensuring that shared renewables become more prevalent in the U.S. They provide resources such as a “Guiding Principles for Shared Renewable Energy Programs”, “Shared Solar Program Catalog”, and “Model Rules for Shared Renewable Energy Programs”.

Shared Renewables HQ: This is a project of Vote Solar, and is the central information center for shared renewable energy projects and policy across the U.S.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Guide to Community Shared Solar: This guide is a resource for those who want to develop community shared solar projects, from community organizers or solar energy advocates to government officials or utility managers.

NREL Focusing the Sun, State Considerations for designing Community Solar Policy.

Community Solar Marketplace: EnergySage has developed an easy-to-use tool to find community solar projects near you.

Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office focuses on achieving the goals of the SunShot Initiative, which seeks to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of electricity by the end of the decade.

National Community Solar Partnership: The Partnership’s mission is to leverage the momentum in the public and private sector to expand solar access to new markets (demographic and geographic) and convene relevant stakeholders to assess market barriers and catalyze deployment in low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities.

Community Solar Hub: A resource for developing community solar projects, including a state-by-state listing of projects.

Grid Alternatives: GRID Alternatives' vision is a successful transition to clean, renewable energy that includes everyone. Their mission is to make renewable energy technology and job training accessible to underserved communities.

TopicsCommunity Solar

What is Community Solar? DOE

The U.S. Department of Energy defines community solar as any solar project or purchasing program, within a geographic area, in which the benefits of a solar project flow to multiple customers such as individuals, businesses, nonprofits, and other groups. In most cases, customers are benefitting from energy generated by solar panels at an off-site array.

Community solar customers can either buy or lease a portion of the solar panels in the array, and they typically receive an electric bill credit for electricity generated by their share of the community solar system—similar to someone who has rooftop panels installed on their home. Community solar can be a great option for people who are unable to install solar panels on their roofs because they don’t own their homes, have insufficient solar resources or roof conditions to support a rooftop PV system due to shading, roof size, or other factors, or for financial/other reasons.

Community solar is rapidly growing across the country. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory tracks installation data on community solar across the country.

How Does Community Solar Work?

Community solar business models vary depending where a subscriber lives. As of 2020, about a third of states have enabling policies for community solar. That means they have passed legislation that created a third-party market for community solar requiring project developers and utilities (typically the larger, investor owned utilities) to follow certain regulations in order to enroll customers and develop community solar installations. Community solar programs that exist outside of those states are developed and managed by the local utility (typically the smaller municipal or cooperative utilities).

In addition to the more common off-site model of community solar, there is also an on-site multifamily community solar model where occupants of apartment and condominium buildings each benefit from the energy produced from the rooftop array.

When it comes to subscribing to community solar programs, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach because of varying laws and regulations. Each subscriber organization presents the economic opportunity differently to its subscribers. In states with enabling policies, most community solar subscribers receive two bills—one from the community solar program for their portion of solar energy, and the other from the utility for the portion of traditionally generated electricity they’ve consumed. Some states are looking to simplify the process and combine the bills.

What are the Customer Benefits of Community Solar?

Community solar allows everyone to benefit from solar energy, even if they can’t put panels on a rooftop. In areas where solar power is less expensive than traditionally generated electricity, consumers can save money on their monthly bills. If subscribers move to a new home within the same utility service territory or county, they can typically continue to benefit from their community solar share. Programs may also have options for selling or donating subscriptions.

What are the Utility Benefits of Community Solar?

Because most community solar arrays are located off-site, utilities can strategically locate the systems in areas of the grid that can benefit the most. Additionally, developing community solar arrays enables utilities to improve their relationships with customers and increase engagement.

How is the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) Improving Community Solar?

SETO is advancing community solar through the National Community Solar Partnership, which is a coalition of community solar stakeholders working to expand access to affordable community solar to every American household by 2025. Partners leverage peer networks and technical assistance resources to set goals and work to overcome persistent barriers to expanding community solar access to underserved communities.

SETO also funded the Solar in Your Community Challenge, a prize competition that worked to expand solar electricity access to all Americans, especially underserved segments such as low- and moderate-income households. The challenge supported teams across the country to develop projects or programs that expand solar access to underserved groups, while proving that these business models can be widely replicated and adopted by similar groups. Learn more about SETO’s work to increase solar access and affordability.

To view specific SETO community solar projects, search the Solar Energy Research Database.

SSolarLearn more about how solar works and all of SETO’s research areas.

Search This Blog

Matt D'Agati