“It’s a good use of my land to help society.”But where you’re able to jump into these projects is really hit or miss. In the US there are only 19 states that have legislation supporting community solar projects and virtual net metering. This image from Solstice also shows the states that have at least one independent project online, but don’t have official laws supporting them.10If you journey out of the US it gets a bit murkier from what I was able to find. Europe doesn’t have many community solar projects at the moment because of a lack of consistent regulatory frameworks,11 but that may be about to change. The 2030 EU Renewable Energy Directive is laying the groundwork for those missing frameworks. All 28 member states have to design laws that will ease the way for community energy generation and consumption.12 Volker Quaschning, a professor of renewable energy systems at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin has said:
“Citizen energy is the key to getting the acceptance necessary to make the energy transition happen.” -Volker Quaschning, University of Applied Sciences, BerlinIn the UK, the mayor of London launched a second round of funding for community energy projects, which is part of his goal to hit 1GW of installed solar capacity by 2030.13 And just this year France removed a footnote from their energy code that was holding back community energy systems.14And in the land of residential Solar, Australia, it shouldn’t be a surprise that they have a lot of community solar options available. There’s a lot of investment options into community solar projects, as well as community solar programs that you can sign up for as a customer.15One of the biggest challenges is finding a project or a place to start … and then knowing what to look for. So, can you find a community solar project near you? Well, for anyone in the US, a great resource is Energysage, which I’m actually a partner of. I’ve been a big advocate of using Energysage if you’re looking for a solar installer, but they also have rolled out a community solar portal. I’ll include a link to my Energysage portal below, but it’s as easy as entering your zip code and average monthly energy bill. From there you can see what type of savings you can expect, and what the high level contract terms are for each project.If you’re outside of the US, I’ll include some links I found for other programs and companies that can help with your search. A few quick ones are Solarsense in the UK, Enova Community Energy in Australia. Community Solar Portal and Farming The Sun which are worth checking out there too. If you know of any good programs or portals, please drop me a comment and I’ll add them to the list.The other challenge is know what to look for in a project, whether you want to own or do a subscription. If you’re looking towards an ownership model, pay attention to the total size or kW of the share that your interested in. And just like installing solar on your home, what’s the per watt price? It’s the best way to compare projects in an apples to apples way. Are there any production guarantees or expected production estimates? Compare the cost of the system to how much you’ll be saving to estimate a payback period and if it aligns with your goals. And finally, be sure that the final offer and price includes all equipment and administration costs. You don’t want any fees sneaking up on you. If you end up moving, you can usually continue to receive the virtual net meter credits associated with your share, but you can also exit by selling the panels to someone else.Subscription programs are much simpler, both cost-wise and for the things to look out for. What are the membership and sign-up fees that will affect your overall savings? And are there early termination fees if you want to leave? Many of the programs I’ve seen in my area don’t have early termination fees or they just require 90 days notice, but make sure you understand both of those points before jumping in. Beyond that there are different styles of subscription systems like:
- Utility rate discount
- Some of the ones I’ve looked into say a 10% price discount vs. what you pay now. So it fluctuates along with current electricity prices.
- Escalating solar rate
- This usually means you start at a fixed lower rate and then slowly increase that rate by a certain percentage each year after that.
- Flat per-kWh rate
- Sometimes they’ll price a kWh rate slightly higher than what you’re currently paying for electricity, but it won’t go up at all over time. So with the expectation that electricity prices will increase in time, you’d save money down the road.
- Fixed monthly fee
- This is similar to the flat per-kWh rate since you’ll be getting a certain number of credits towards your bill each month. Over time those credits become more valuable as electricity rates increase.
- Lease to own
- After a certain number of years, your payments stop and the solar credits you receive each month are free.
- Partial and full up-front payments
- Probably what you expect, but pay a lump sum to get deeper discounted rates.
- Business Insider-This incredible fact should get you psyched about solar power ↩︎
- NREL-Shared Solar: Current Landscape, Market Potential, and the Impact of Federal Securities Regulation ↩︎
- Solar Power World-Solar does work within HOAs, but installers have to stay vigilant ↩︎
- Statista-Home ownership rate in selected European countries in 2018 and 2019 ↩︎
- Wikipedia-List of countries by home ownership rate ↩︎
- Energysage-Top Community Solar States: Minnesota vs California, Massachusetts Colorado Community Solar ↩︎
- ILSR-National Community Solar Programs Tracker ↩︎
- IPS-Eichten’s Hidden Acres Solar Garden ↩︎
- IPS Community Solar ↩︎
- Solstice-Here Are the Top 19 Community Solar States in 2019 ↩︎
- Guidehouse Insights-Community Solar PV Comes to the UK ↩︎
- Energy Transition-The Triumphant Return of Community Energy ↩︎
- Solar Power Portal-Sadiq Khan launches second phase of community energy funding as solar push continues ↩︎
- PV Magazine-Energy communities are now allowed in France ↩︎
- Enova Community Energy ↩︎
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