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Sun for Everyone -- Community Solar

Sun for Everyone -- Community Solar

Summary: Sun for Everyone!

Description

Would you love to use the energy of the sun, but think you can't, because you rent your home, your house is surrounded by shade-giving trees, or you live in a condo? 

Now you can! Joining a community solar farm allows all of us to green our electricity.

HOW TO GET STARTED

Joining a community solar project is easy. Have you electric bill ready and visit EnergySage. This site promotes solar for all kinds of situations. It only takes a few minutes to sign up for your share of an array somewhere in or near our community. The workings of this system are a little complicated (you can read it under the Deep Dive tab), luckily you do not need to understand them to benefit. 

Depending on how much solar the farm produces and how big your electricity use is, just by signing up, you will save an on average 8% to 10% over a year on your electric bills. This is because community solar providers sell electricity to the grid, for which they receive "credits". You will receive a portion of these credits.
 

Deep Dive

Please visit  EnergySage if you don’t see your questions answered below.

COMMUNITY SOLAR is a subscription service that helps you fund a local solar project in your utility’s service territory in exchange for a credit on your electricity bill. 

ANYONE PAYING AN ELECTRIC BILL CAN SIGN UP FOR COMMUNITY SOLAR. 

Renters, condo or homeowners, small businesses and non-profits are all eligible.

Here is how it works:

You sign a contract with a community solar company as a “subscriber.” 

You agree to purchase a portion of the solar bill credits generated by a local solar project.  The project will be within your utility’s service territory but not necessarily within your town. Your purchase agreement, combined with agreements by others, help a company secure financing to build the solar project.

Typical terms are 10% savings off the value of your solar bill credits (not your entire electric bill). The number of solar credits you agree to purchase will determine the amount of your savings as a percentage of your entire electric bill. For an example, please see our “Deep Dive” tab at the top.

You are assigned a number of “community solar shares” that will cover a portion of your electricity use.

The community solar project produces electricity for the grid. Your utility buys that electricity and creates credits which are then allocated to each participant in the community solar project. Your community solar company tracks the solar bill credits that you should receive on your utility bill each billing period.

You receive your monthly electric bill from your utility. You will see the cost of your electricity supplied to you that month, the utility’s cost to deliver that electricity to your home, and any solar credits created by the solar project. The credits will reduce the cost of the electricity supplied to you. For an example, please see our “Deep Dive” tab at the top.

You receive a bill from the community solar company. You pay the community solar company for the credits from the solar project that show up on your utility bill.  Typically, the community solar company will offer a 10% discount on the value of the credits, meaning you’ll save 10% on the value of those credits!  Put another way, you’ll pay just 90 cents for every dollar of credit showing up on your utility bill. For an example, please see our “Deep Dive” tab at the top.

You may be worried that this is like one of those companies that call or knock on your door to get you to switch to their electricity supply plan. Note some of those alternate electricity supply companies have employed aggressive or misleading sales tactics. Some people have  signed-up for introductory offers at very low rates, only to forget to monitor the rates and find themselves facing much higher rates later on and/or locked into a lengthy contract. In fact, the Massachusetts Attorney General found that residential customers paid more for their electricity than they would have from their utility.

COMMUNITY SOLAR IS NOT LIKE THOSE COMPANIES. Most community solar offerings currently offer a month-to-month commitment with a locked-in savings rate on the value of the credits. It is a way to support local clean energy development and jobs right here in Massachusetts. The developers need our subscriptions in order to get financing to build their projects and want satisfied customers.

READY TO CHECK IT OUT? See our Steps to Take tab at the top.

Steps to Take

  1. Find your electric bill - you will need your account number.
  2. Go to the webpage of our Community Solar partner EnergySage. We partnered with EnergySage because they act as a neutral public marketplace/broker for multiple community solar developers. This means you are likely to find a community solar project that will work for you - i.e. one that is taking new subscribers using the amount of electricity you require. Plus, they have an easy-to-use marketplace and customer support through their Energy Advisors. Cooler Communities does not receive money from EnergySage. 

You may want to check out other community solar developers and aggregators for more information. Here are a few that are very active in Massachusetts: 

  1. BlueWave
  2. SunWealth - for low income residents and neighborhoods - a good intro video is here. 
  3. Nexamp 
  4. Relay Power

 Process for EnergySage:

  1. Enter your zip code to find local community solar projects
  2. Compare options & choose a project
  3. Provide basic contact information and click “subscribe”
  4. Your community solar company will reach out to finalize your subscription
  5. You will start to see bill credits appear on your electric bill once the project is live
  6. You will receive your first community solar bill                               

What should I look for? How will I know I’m getting a good deal?      

Fortunately for consumers in Massachusetts, the community solar terms are becoming simpler over time.  The EnergySage site offers tips for being an informed buyer.  Here are some questions you can ask when deciding between community solar offers:

1)How long is the term of your contract with the community solar provider?

2) How many credits each month do they suggest you buy?  Ask how they calculate that amount (good to make sure you only buy credits that you can use). 

3) Does the company charge a fee if you exit the contract early?

4) Will they provide a written contract?  (Be sure to read it.)

5) How do you pay for your community solar subscription? If it is per kilowatt hour, what is the rate? Can that rate increase over the time of the contract?

6) Do they require a credit check?

7) How will the company bill you? Electronically? A paper bill? How do they accept your payments? Can you choose? Do they offer automatic deductions from your bank account?

TIMING NOTE: Many community solar companies sign up subscribers prior to the solar project finishing construction. You will only start to receive solar credits on your utility bill and a community solar bill once the project is fully built and commenced operations. This means that after you sign up, there may be a period of months before you begin seeing credits on your bill.  Ask the community solar company to send you updates on the project and to give you their contact information and/or a website link.  If you’ve any questions, don’t hesitate to contact them to ask.   

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