Community Solar

Community solar programs offer the economic and environmental benefits of solar to the 49% of Americans without traditional solar access, either because of physical, ownership or financial limitations.

The primary purpose of community solar is to allow members of a community the opportunity to share the benefits of solar power even if they cannot or prefer not to install solar panels on their property. Project participants benefit from the electricity generated by the community solar farm, which costs less than the price they would ordinarily pay to their utility.

Community solar project sizes can vary from very small (20 kW in capacity) up to 2,000 kW in capacity or more. In almost all cases, though, they tend to enjoy economies of scale compared to residential and small commercial solar projects. Community solar projects are often more than 100 times larger than residential systems (community solar projects average 1,000 kW, versus residential systems, which average 6.1 kW). This translates into power costs that are lower for subscribers than on-site PV systems, even after paying the administrative costs of community solar programs.

To date, 14 states and Washington, D.C., have enacted community solar legislation, with several more considering similar policies, and numerous utilities in more than half of states have voluntarily created shared solar programs. In addition, as local governments continue their leadership on energy and climate matters in the coming years, we anticipate an increased interest in advancing corollary policies to expand consumer access and meet resiliency goals in urban areas (such as on-site multifamily solar, enabled through virtual net metering or aggregate net metering policies).