Collective installation of solar power generation

How can community solar transform the energy industry?

Community solar provides a framework to transform the energy industry by combining group ownership, the imperative to decarbonize, and discounts of bulk-purchases, with proven and continually improving technology. Community solar is transforming the energy industry from the bottom-up. However, it is disruptive to the status quo.

How does group billing work for community shared solar projects?

Group billing for community shared solar projects works in a similar way, except that participants do not need to reside in a single building. First, a utility produces a group bill showing all participants’ energy consumption and relevant charges. Then, output from a shared PV system is netted against the group bill.

How does a community solar incentive system work?

Compensation by a system of “adders” credits the benefits of community solar by building onto a base incentive rate; each community solar project is evaluated individually to meet certain criteria. Eligible criteria for adders can be any attribution of a solar installation deemed especially valuable to the grid, environment, or community.

Can a group of investors buy a solar installation?

Solar installation companies such as My Generation Energy in Massachusetts have successfully created LLCs to purchase solar installations funded by a group of investors. Although this expands the market for solar, we have not included this as an example of community solar because the benefits are limited to a small group of tax-motivated investors.

How can a community solar system be implemented?

Programming can serve to eliminate the incidental barriers to community solar created by other policies, like securities laws. Publicly owned utilities are often considered to be a more favorable environment for implementing community solar.

How solar energy is collected?

Devices such as solar photovoltaic and solar thermal collectors are used to convert the radiation energy from Sun into useful heat and electrical energy. Based on the technology involved to collect and distribute, this energy can be further classified into an Active and Passive method to collect solar power.