Equitable Community Solar Program
Summary
Homeowners, renters, and community organizations can participate in a community solar project and purchase affordable solar power produced close to home, without installing any new equipment. Community solar arrays can be built on faith institution or school campuses, brownfields, unused lots, or anywhere where there is enough space, sun exposure, and access to the power grid for a solar array to work.
The problem with most preexisting community solar programs is that they have the same barriers to entry as personal rooftop solar -- that is, the programs require high credit scores, upfront costs, and long term commitments. Equitable community solar programs solve this by eliminating barriers. One such program implemented by Groundswell eliminates barriers via a model that takes credit scores off the table as an obstacle and enables anyone to subscribe to affordable clean energy.
Part of Solution
Additional Information
Acording to Groundswell-- an organization that is implementing equitable community solar programs-- the main offerings of the program include:
- Saves money for working families
- Takes consumer credit off the table as an obstacle for working families
- Links the power of community organizing to the credit strength of the project
- Enables monetization of tax credits
- Features mission-aligned ownership structure
- Builds community wealth
- Can work with utility, rural electric co-ops, or municipal utilities
- Market-based, and not dependent on subsidy for replication and scale
Photos
Submitted By
Bryan Lehrer