Have you ever wanted to save money on your electricity bill and utilize renewable energy without installing any equipment at your home? It might sound too good to be true, but if you happen to live in a state with a community solar program available, it’s possible!
I live in D.C., a place where lucrative incentives exist for generating solar energy, and I’m proud to report that I was able to subscribe to source my electricity from a local solar project, a 6 MW solar array installed at a university about 3 miles away. What’s even better is that I’m getting my electricity at a 10% discount compared to local utility prices. The solar project receives revenue from the District for generating renewable energy. This incentive is provided by the city for helping D.C. meet its renewable energy targets. Additionally, the project receives revenue from transferring the power to Pepco, the local utility. With these revenue streams funding local solar projects, customers are able to receive discounts on their electricity when they subscribe to these projects.
The solar developer typically works with a 3rd party subscriber aggregator that pairs customers with a solar project and coordinates the bill credits with the utility. As a customer, all you need to do is find an aggregator that works in your utility territory (which you can find through an internet search) and sign up through the aggregator to receive community solar energy. One of my favorite aggregators is Arcadia, a local D.C. company, but there are many regional aggregators in different markets. Sometimes, an aggregator will take over your entire electric bill and send you one discounted bill each month, but sometimes you’ll end up getting 2 small bills – one from the utility for fixed charges and one from the aggregator for discounted solar.
So many of us want to do our part to slow climate change, but we think we have no choice when it comes to choosing where our electricity comes from. Even if we want to generate our own solar energy, there are many reasons that rooftop solar might not be possible. Perhaps it costs too much, or maybe there are unfavorable homeowner association regulations, your property is leased, or the roof is shaded from trees. Luckily, the norm is changing. Community solar is a solution available in various states throughout the U.S. including the District of Columbia, Maryland, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, New Mexico, Minnesota, and Massachusetts. Find out if community solar is available in your area and look to subscribe to receive clean, local electricity!
Keywords: #carbon reduction, #solutions, #solar