Community Renewable Energy

Community Solar

Solar energy can be harnessed to generate electricity using Photovoltaics (PV), to heat water, and to heat building spaces. Solar energy technologies come in all sizes. Some utilities are investing in large-scale solar power plants (many multiple MW projects can be found in California, Arizona, Nevada), but solar is often used as the smallest-scale of renewable energy applications.

As well as being a clean, renewable energy source, solar energy has unique values as a form of Distributed Generation. Benefits include:

• Energy Security
• Load reduction
• Elimination of transmission losses by generating energy close to the load
• Ability to net meter
• Strengthening of the transmission/distribution system (potentially holding off capacity upgrades)
• Peak power production correlating with the hours of peak consumption (for summer-peaking loads)
• Ease of siting and permitting
• Reducing the amount of money exported from a community for energy needs, while strengthening a local economy.

When thinking of other renewable technologies for community energy applications (wind, biomass, etc) we think predominately of utility-scale technologies used to benefit the community. However, solar energy’s ability to be utilized on-site allows for smaller systems that provide cumulative results in a community. Community solar is less defined by the size of a single installation than by the cumulative benefits that go beyond any one private business or citizen.

Examples of Community Solar Energy include:

• A cluster of installations in a community where solar energy provides exceptional value (Martha’s Vineyard, MA; Block Island, RI)
  

• Solar co-op as part of a green power program, such as the NW Solar Cooperative, Chelan PUD SNAP Program, and the City of Ellensburg Community Solar Electric.
  

• Solar on public or non-profit agencies that serve the community, funded via a specific green power program (Seattle City Light, SMUD Community Solar, City of Ashland).

As a community pursues solar energy use, the following will all need to be carefully evaluated in order to determine project scope and technology:

• Energy consumption (how much and for what)
• Resource availability
• Technology appropriateness
• Estimated cost of the system(s)
• Estimated energy production
• Additional community benefits (i.e. educational use)
• Utility guidelines
• Incentive eligibility
• Ability to leverage individual investments