The Community Solar Lifeline Continues To Live On

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The recent U-turn in federal energy policy has not been helpful, to say the least, but the demand for secure, reliable, and economical energy resources continues to persist in the US. One area of growth is the community solar movement, where smaller-scale, locally sited solar arrays provide ratepayers with an opportunity to save money on their electricity bills.

Community Solar For Everyone

Community solar refers to hyper-local or nearby solar arrays that ratepayers can tap into on a subscription basis. It provides a dedicated solar option for ratepayers that don’t have rooftop solar panels, either because they don’t own their roof, or because they don’t have the space, sunlight, inclination, or financial resources to purchase their rooftop solar panels.

Community solar projects require state-based authorization. They are generally small in scale, but the numbers are adding up. Colorado can take credit for the first enabling legislation in 2010. As of 2024, 43 states and the District of Columbia enabled community solar, for a respectable total of 11 gigawatts (AC).

In the early 2000s, when solar panels were much more expensive, subscribers had to opt into a community solar project, and they had to pay extra for the clean kilowatts. The selling point was an ethical one, not a matter of cutting one’s personal utility bills. That limited the appeal to higher-income ratepayers, though plans were generally designed to provide discounts based on financial need.

Since then, solar panels and installation expenses have dropped precipitously. Today, community solar subscribers can expect to save money over their usual grid mix. In some states, an opt-in subscription isn’t even needed any more. Instead, solar access is provided to everyone in a given area, on an opt-out basis (see lots more background here).

Community Solar Lives To See Another Day

In keeping with the community theme, community solar projects can also serve additional public goals. They can be located on landfills and other underused industrial sites, for example. An intersection with urban farming is also beginning to emerge.

Community solar plans also continue to reserve space for lower-income households up front, and that’s where the latest news comes in. Earlier this week, the US Department of Energy tapped the firm InClime to run its “Energy Connector” community solar hub for income-eligible households, in partnership with the organization Clean Energy States Alliance.

Energy Connector is a new, multi-partner program launched in 2024 under the purview of the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (now the National Laboratory of the Rockies). This week’s hand-off is in keeping with the agency’s current reluctance to associate publicly with wind and solar energy. However, if the intent was to kill off the community solar movement, it falls short.

“InClime is committed to continuing the core mission of the Energy Connector to support energy affordability for low- and moderate-income (LMI) residents by streamlining access to cost-saving community solar subscriptions with robust data and consumer protections,” InClime explains.

“A veteran-owned small business, InClime has been running technically enabled renewable energy, energy efficiency, and income verification programs for utilities and public entities since its launch in December 2013,” the company adds.

InClime CEO Kevin Quilliam also chipped in his two cents in a press announcement, affirming that the company will “continue the mission it established for the Energy Connector to bridge the LMI population with community solar.”

“We look forward to working with the Connector’s existing users to maintain and improve the platform, and to expanding the platform to new programs and additional states,” Quilliam emphasized, underscoring the potential for continued growth in the community solar movement.

“The Energy Connector facilitates community solar development,” CESA Executive Director Warren Leon added for good measure.

More Solar Power For Local Communities

Community solar is a particularly good fit for smaller industrialized states where open space is limited but plenty of brownfields, derelict quarries, reservoirs, and other infrastructure are available for repurposing into solar power plants.

That dynamic is at work in New Jersey, where the Board of Public Utilities has authorized a major expansion of the state’s community solar program. The new program calls for adding a total of 3 gigawatts, covering about 450,000 subscribers.

“The expansion is expected to move New Jersey from seventh in the nation into the top tier for community solar deployment,” BPU notes.

New Jersey is also piloting a new agrivoltaic or “Dual-Use” program that aims to balance energy and agriculture on the state’s limited farmland. If successful, the pilot program will demonstrate how farmland can be preserved with a supportive, reliable revenue stream that balances energy and agriculture on the same land.

More community solar translates into more local jobs, and New Jersey is not the only state to spot a new opportunity to stimulate economic development. New Mexico passed community solar enabling legislation in 2021. It finally rolled out the program last September to much acclaim from local solar developers.

A 48.4-megawatt portfolio under the banner of a New Mexico-based partnership between Pluma Construction, ForeFront Power, and Standard Solar is among the first to get off the ground.

“New Mexico’s Pluma Construction developed the projects with support from ForeFront Power. Standard Solar acquired the projects and will be the long-term owner and operator of the portfolio. Solstice is leading subscriptions and customer acquisition,” the partners explained in a press statement on March 16.

Help Is On The Way

In another interesting development, Reuters is among those reporting that that Tesla CEO Elon Musk aims to add 100 gigawatts of solar to the US grid.

Taking that with a rather large grain of salt, or perhaps an entire salt mine, the pieces are in place for a fresh burst of solar activity in the US, with community solar being just one example.

While Musk is reportedly planning to bring solar manufacturing  equipment to the US from China, the domestic silicon solar industry has already on-shored its supply chain. He’ll have to scramble to catch up.

In addition, the domestic thin film solar industry is also expanding its domestic manufacturing footprint. A recent study indicates that the US could host 100 gigawatts’ (DC) worth of thin film solar manufacturing per year by 2030, if all goes according to plan.

That depends partly on the current state of federal energy policy, of course. However, last week the US Department of Energy dropped a hint that the groundwork is being laid for a more renewables-friendly grid. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law carved out $10.5 billion for a program called GRIP (Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships), which continues to stay alive under the new and somewhat awkward title of SPARK, for “Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades.”

The Energy Department has just opened up a $1.9 billion call for projects under SPARK. The pitch is resource agnostic, which could provide new opportunities for fossil and nuclear power plants. However, the focus is reducing consumer costs while deploying existing rights-of-way, which could benefit a range of other resources including wind and solar. After all, the wind will blow and the sun will shine long after the current President leaves office on January 20, 2029. Thoughts? Drop a note in the discussion thread.

Photo: Local, small scale community solar arrays continue to expand in the US, providing ratepayers with relief from high electricity bills (courtesy of NLR, formerly NREL by Dennis Schroeder).