For many potential solar customers, installing a system at their home or business may seem impossible or undesirable. On-site systems require certain roof and site characteristics—such as adequate unshaded space—and rely on permission from the property owner, who may not live or work on the property. Community solar programs give customers alternative pathways to access solar by enabling them to share solar generation from an on- or off-site solar energy system with multiple end users.
Community solar programs can be managed by for-profit or nonprofit organizations, but they are most often utility driven. While the number of community solar programs across the country has grown, there remains enormous potential to expand, improve, and replicate these programs nationwide
Through Solar Market Pathways, projects worked to:
This toolkit provides a suite of resources to guide the development of, and investment in, community solar and equip diverse stakeholders with tools to navigate relevant policy issues, program design and implementation, and consumer and community engagement. The resources in this toolkit are built for the audiences they serve—utilities, policy makers, investors and financiers; the renewable energy industry; and residential and non-residential end users. The toolkit may also be helpful for community groups and local governments interested in advancing community solar in their respective localities.
Community solar programs give consumers an alternative to placing solar on their own property and enables multiple participants to benefit from electricity generated by a shared solar energy system, which is typically located off site. These programs offer great potential for long-term growth—between 2015 and 2020, cumulative community solar installations could constitute 5.5-11 GW of solar PV for residential and non-residential customers.
As a starting point for those who want to develop community solar projects, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory produced A Guide to Community Solar, providing a detailed overview of the different community solar ownership models for utility, private, and nonprofit projects.
The tools in the Solar Energy Resource Center provide an overview of key concepts, offering a helpful resource for those seeking to learn more about community solar issues, program designs, and models.
A checklist to help guide decision-makers and program designers as they develop community solar programs, and useful relevant additional resources for reference.
These five guiding principles provide an overview of the key elements for successful shared renewable energy programs designed to expand consumer access to clean energy.
This guide provides an overview of the different community solar ownership models.
An overview of community solar program elements and related issues.
DOE curated online database of resources for a broad spectrum of solar topics.
This analysis quantifies the shared solar market potential by site, characteristics or type, subscriber type, and ownership model in the county.
Utilities, customers, decision-makers, and other stakeholders should understand, and take into account, important policy considerations that may affect community solar program design and implementation. There are a number of policy options—including virtual net metering, group net metering, meter aggregation, and group billing—that enable community solar, and various resources available for exploring these options.
The Interstate Renewable Energy Council’s State Shared Renewable Energy Program Catalog assists policymakers, regulators, and other stakeholders in understanding the details of existing and proposed state shared-renewables statutes and program rules. The Center for Sustainable Energy offers a comprehensive summary of California’s virtual net metering tariff for general market multifamily housing, plus an overview of other state virtual net metering and community solar policies across the country.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory also offers a country-wide overview of community solar in its report, examining the current U.S. shared solar landscape. This report provides an estimate of market potential for U.S. shared solar deployment and discusses the effects of federal securities regulations.
This paper explores the ways in which the shared solar business model interacts with existing policy and regulations and provides options for creating a supportive policy environment.
This report highlights the potential for community-scale solar (0.5–5MW projects) and the key attributes and opportunities associated with this untapped market.
This report provides an overview of community solar activities around the country, highlighting state activities as well as utility-led initiatives.
This report summarizes California’s Virtual Net Metering Tariff for general market multi-tenant units and provides an overview of VNM and community solar policies across the country.
This report assesses the current NEM-V Market within CA and highlighting potential market developments that could support greater NEM-V adoption throughout the state.
Overview of the shared solar landscape and estimate of market potential for the U.S., and the impact a shared solar program’s structure has on requiring federal securities oversight.
The scorecard evaluates shared renewables programs across the US, offering insights into the strengths and weaknesses of programs relative to a set of core design criteria.
This guide compares pathways, policies, and other considerations for those seeking to expand solar access to multifamily housing.
The national trade association for community solar developed a helpful decision matrix for designing community solar programs.
There are many ways to design and implement a community solar program involving different business models, program design considerations, and project implementation tools.
Across the country there are a growing number of community solar projects, several of which were developed into case studies as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Community Solar Partnership. Utility cooperatives and developers are working to streamline procurement, coordinate installation, drive down solar costs, and make solar more accessible for residents of all income levels. It is important for these organizations—developers, utilities, and nonprofits alike—to consider barriers to participation—such as income level—for potential energy program customers. Enabling policy guidelines and program design recommendations help ensure community solar programs are designed to be effective for all end users, especially low- to moderate-income consumers.
To foster utility-led community solar models closely aligned with the needs and interests of consumers and stakeholders, the Smart Electric Power Alliance published a report on 12 key community solar design decisions, surveying existing community solar programs and providing case studies for the most prevalent models. The types of utility-owned community solar projects outlined in this report are becoming increasingly prevalent across the U.S., especially among publicly owned utilities.
Cook County, Illinois pioneered new approaches, tools, and resources as they worked to jumpstart community solar in the county and across Illinois. Their experience demonstrates the importance of robust stakeholder engagement, analysis, and assessment tools as key ingredients to opening new community solar markets.
Community solar projects can also be designed to help utilities avoid costly engineering solutions and provide regional-level ancillary services. New business models can increase the scale, reach, and value of utility-based community solar. Utility solar program managers can include appropriate demand response measures to enhance the value of distributed solar and utility-driven community solar. Community Solar Value Project’s pricing model fact sheet provides a side-by-side comparison of community solar pricing strategies at seven utilities nationwide.
A checklist to help guide decision-makers and program designers as they develop community solar programs, and useful relevant additional resources for reference.
The study identifies model programs and national best practices in Community Solar and provides a baseline framework for policy positions to accelerate community solar in Cook County.
This plan is intended to help policymakers, regulators, local governments, multifamily stakeholders and others in CA and beyond to expand multifamily solar in their jurisdictions.
An overview of Michigan Community Solar’s work under the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Community Solar Partnership to develop a large solar installation in the community.
An overview of BARC Electric Cooperative’s work under the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Community Solar Partnership to bring the first community solar project to Virginia
This online resource library provides presentations and publications relating to ownership and financing models, solar+storage and demand response, and marketing, among other topics.
This comprehensive guide is intended as a resource for project organizers seeking to implement community solar projects in their community.
This online resource provides various implementation tools, resources, software, and other services to help support and streamline community solar project development.
This online toolkit and guide is designed to help local governments interested in community solar gardens.
A consolidated overview and discussion of community solar program design components and an adaptable template for policies and rulemaking purposes.
This website provides useful resources for communities, developers, industry, state and local governments or anyone interested in reusing these sites for renewable energy development.
This case study spotlights the Grand Valley Rural Cooperative Community Solar project in Colorado completed in partnership with GRID Alternatives.
A summary of community solar, its recent growth in Texas, technical resources to reference, and an overview of the major community solar decision points.
An overview of the utility’s perspective on utility managed community solar program development and the major design elements the utility needs to address during program development.
This tool allows users to see how various inputs, such as system size, location, and project costs, impact the economics of a project from both the customer and utility perspectives.
This table provides a side-by-side comparison of community solar pricing strategies at seven utilities nationwide.
The catalog is intended to assist policymakers, regulators, and stakeholders in understanding the details of existing and proposed state shared renewables statutes and program rules.
This report provides an overview of key barriers to LMI customer participation in shared renewable energy programs and key policy guidelines and program design recommendations.
This report provides an overview of community solar program models through 12 key design decisions and discusses what options are most prevalent. Case studies of each model type are provided.
This report assists utility solar program managers in including appropriate demand response measures to enhance the value of distributed solar.
An overview of Solar Holler’s work to develop a creative crowdfunding model to leverage revenue from energy efficiency to put solar on nonprofit buildings.
An overview of Rural Renewable Energy Alliance’s work to provide weatherization, solar thermal and solar electric systems for low-income households.
An overview of Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative’s work to streamline procurement, coordinate installation and drive down costs of solar in the community.
An overview of Kit Carson Electric Cooperative’s work to engage their community to bring a solar array to residents of multiple income levels.
This case study spotlights Cook County’s efforts to jumpstart community solar in a nascent market through effective stakeholder engagement.
This website provides resources to help utilities evaluate and customize internal processes as they work to develop community solar programs and projects. This toolkit serves as a tool for unifying diverse team members and as a checklist of key program-design considerations.
An overview of key barriers to LMI customer participation in shared renewable energy programs and key policy guidelines and program design recommendations.
Understanding project economics, as well as available financing tools, is critical to successful community solar program design and implementation. The Community Solar Business Case Tool provides a flexible financial model that projects the costs and benefits to the system developer and subscriber of a single community solar project. Stakeholders can use this tool to determine the value proposition of investing in community solar.
The Cook County Department of Environmental Control, with support from the National Community Solar Partnership, polled various regional and national stakeholders to develop the Shared Solar Value Proposition, which contains an analysis of the value proposition for subscribers and developers and an overall summary report of the value proposition for community solar. The Department of Energy provides an overview of three ways to finance community solar projects.
Utility billing and bill-crediting mechanisms are key to allocating benefits to participants, but they have been a barrier for some programs and states. Cook County’s Utility Billing Impacts of Community Solar presentation analyzes potential bill-crediting processes for subscriber management of community solar projects.
Utility-led community solar programs have options for structuring and financing that vary based on the structure of utility (investor-owned, municipal utility, or cooperative), state policies, and upcoming changes to the federal solar tax incentives.
This document contains the analysis of the value proposition for subscribers and developers and an overall summary report of the value proposition for community solar.
Building from Part I, this analysis includes utility impacts and provisions of the 2016 legislation. Results show a positive business case for system owners and subscribers.
A DOE curated resource list of federal programs and incentives applicable to community solar development.
This online resource library provides examples of different models and financing mechanisms to help expand solar access to LMI customers.
From revolving funds to tax equity loans, this blog provides three examples of how to bring solar into communities.
From the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) determining that an owner of PV panels in an offsite community shared solar garden is eligible for the residential tax credit.
A legal memo issued to NREL discussing the federal securities legal issues surrounding community solar development.
This downloadable spreadsheet is a flexible financial model that projects the costs and benefits to the system developer and subscriber of a single community solar project.
This report analyzes the potential bill-crediting processes for subscriber management of a community solar project.
A successful community solar program relies on effective outreach and education, which can include project-specific marketing.
The Smart Electric Power Alliance provides insights into consumer preferences for solar in a summary report of two new surveys of U.S. energy customers. It includes methods for identifying and marketing to the right audiences for community solar. To engage contractors, property owners, and developers, the Multifamily Online Solar Marketplace offers a process to simplify complex multifamily solar projects by providing resources and assistance for making smart solar decisions, and to help property owners easily gather and compare solar quotes. Multifamily and contractor toolkits featuring roadmaps, checklists, and worksheets guide solar deployment for apartment and condominium communities. These toolkits also include interconnection resources and a group of interactive multifamily density maps to aid in targeting outreach regions and acquiring customers.
This platform connects community shared solar developers to interested owners of potential host sites, including rooftops and open land.
This free online calculator and information guide helps potential subscribers of Minnesota’s Community Solar Garden’s program better understand the financial impact of participation.
The Consumer Protection Trio spotlights safeguards and pointers for buyers, government agencies, the industry, retailers, and others.
A guide for landowners to help them understand the opportunities and implications for leasing their land for solar development.
This provides an overview of issues for consumers to consider when evaluating community solar options.
This tool allows users to see how various inputs, such as system size, location, and project costs, impact the economics of a project from both the customer and utility perspectives.
This consumer guide provides a brief overview of key terms in agreements, questions to ask solar professionals, and other issues to consider when choosing community solar programs.
Created for California, the multifamily toolkits feature roadmaps, checklists, maps and worksheets to support use of the virtual net metering tariff.
This site helps simplify the process for owners of multifamily properties offering resources and the ability to gather and compare solar quotes.
This report highlights findings from two new surveys of American energy customers regarding solar energy, with a focus on community solar.
This case study covers the importance of knowing customer concerns and needs when building community solar programs. It includes a discussion of the value of community solar to commercial and industrial customers.