Perch Energy: Community Solar Explained

Ecofrugality is about two things: saving money and helping the environment. In my book, doing either one of those things is good, but doing both at once is even better. And community solar, the subject of my latest piece for the Perch Energy blog, fits that category perfectly. 

When most people think about solar power, they think about individual homes with solar panels on their roofs. But rooftop solar isn't an option if you rent, or live in a condo, or have a roof that doesn't get enough sun — or, as we discovered, if your household energy usage is too low. If you live in a state with electricity deregulation, you can purchase electricity from a green power supplier instead, but you have to pay extra for it. Which seems unfair, since solar power is actually cheaper to produce than electricity from fossil fuels and most other sources, and it seems only right for those savings to go to the consumer.

Well, with community solar, they can. Basically, you buy shares in a big solar farm that's being built in your area and get your electricity from them. You can either buy an ownership share (which is like having our own solar array, except it's not on your own house) or a subscription share (which is like buying electricity from a green power supplier, except at a lower cost). So you get clean power and lower energy bills, all without the big up-front cost of installing a solar setup.

The only downside, as far as I can see, is that it's not available to everyone. There has to be a solar farm in your area that's accepting new subscribers, and you have to meet the operators' criteria (such as credit rating or total power use). But if there is a solar farm near you, it seems like a no-brainer to at least submit an application and see what happens. 

And in the course of writing this piece, I discovered that this is in fact the case for me. There's one community solar project near us with 615 kW of power still available. So I submitted an application, and according to the contract, they can sell us solar energy for up to 90% of our total power use at a 15% discount over PSE&G's prices. (For the remaining 10%, I guess we'll continue paying a slightly higher rate to North American Power. But we'll come out ahead overall.)

Want to learn more about how it works and how to get the same perks yourself? Check out the article.

Community Solar Explained: Ultimate Guide to How Community Solar Works