I’ve Met With Four Upstate NY Municipalities The Last Week on Community Solar.
Here Are The Central Themes We Discussed
It’s been a productive few weeks on the municipal front for our team at Community Solar Authority.
Our group has been hosting conversations with different cities across the Upstate New York region to discuss all things Community Solar.
Many municipalities are familiar with the concept of solar farms, they’ve interacted with developers in regards to development, and many have also subscribed to these facilities.
We’ve helped many municipal organizations across NY & IL access the program turnkey, have unlocked future savings of over $20M+ for our clients over the last six years with the program, and are stakeholders in the National Community Solar Partnership.
The purpose of this article is to review some of the central themes that have come up around community solar enrollments from a municipal subscription perspective.
Efficiency & Sustainability Roadmaps
Many municipalities have been building their roadmaps to a more sustainable city.
This isn’t so black and white but rather a dichotomy to be managed, meaning- how far along have they gotten so far?
Some had done the basics like LED lighting & energy supply, others had established industry partnerships for massive efficiency initiatives.
In either case, a community solar subscription fits into the plans as a cherry-on-top to the work they’ve done so far.
Q&A:
Q: Can we still participate in community solar if we’re doing energy supply?
A: Yes! A community solar subscription creates bill credits that flow to your utility account and work in tandem with your energy supply. You are not changing your supplier, can keep the rates you signed up for, and benefit from both. The consideration here is what’s known as Utility Consolidated Billing (UCB,) & will simply determine how many bill credits we can allocate to your utility account. If your supply and delivery are both found on your utility bill, we can maximize your offset.
PS: It’s very simple to call your supplier and request to move back to consolidated billing. Some accounts you can, others you can’t- based on terms & conditions of suppliers.
Q: How can we make sure this doesn’t interfere with our efficiency plans?
A: We build our community solar subscriptions based on your annual spending. As an example, we recently had a city using ~1M in annual spend, but that had an industry partnership in place that planned to reduce consumption by 15%. This means that we could safely size the subscription based on ~750k in spending with plenty of wiggle room to not interfere with their plans in place.
PS: Even with efficiency plans, the reality is that we’re only going to use MORE electricity as time goes on. Cities will become more efficient and sustainable, but will also have to deal with electrification, new buildings, and increases in consumption.
Citywide Involvement & Marketing
Some of the meetings had blocks of time centered around how to get the residents of the city involved, improve energy equity, and understand how to serve the greater community.
Our work has a key social sustainability component to it beyond just enrolling our clients into community solar. We do a lot of work with affordable housing communities, housing authorities, etc. to ensure the benefits spread to vulnerable parts of the community.
We are also a corporate partner for a non-profit in Onondaga County, NY called In My Father’s Kitchen which works to help the homeless & provides addiction services. Making the greatest positive impact is at the forefront of our minds.
Q&A
Q: How can we involve the residents in this community solar rollout?
A: The residents will not be directly involved in the city's enrollment, but can still enroll their own utility account into community solar. Our company works alongside some of the most significant solar developers in the country, and we can provide access to the residents to get involved and bring energy equity to the conversation. For us, we can include marketing campaigns, email initiatives, and other types of community-based outreach to get residents involved.
Q: How can the city talk about its community solar enrollment from a marketing perspective?
A: We help our clients create PR to avoid greenwashing. Serving as an anchor client on a community solar project helps clean the greater energy grid, serves underserved communities, helps promote environmental stewardship, & overall helps them enhance sustainability practices as an organization. The clean energy produced on the solar farm is not coming directly back into the city, and you can’t say certain things like, “We’re powered on clean energy,” but working with us ensures we’ll be able to help you tell a good news story for the community.
Mechanics of the Program & Considerations
Community Solar, at first glance, sounds too good to be true.
In exchange for helping clean the energy grid, you receive a bill credit based on power production that offsets utility costs, on a $0 investment- without installing solar on-site.
The reality is that the clean energy economy is now a trillion-dollar one. The incentives, subsidies, and benefits that solar developers capture from the program allow for a symbiotic relationship between those building these solar farms; and those who participate.
Q&A
Q: What are the downsides to community solar and what do we need to consider?
A: Instead of participating in renewables through capital investment, you are committing a set amount of time. The consideration is that when you enroll as an anchor tenant, you commit to serving as a long-term partner of that solar farm. There are scenarios where you can exit these agreements, but we’re typically seeing a minimum of 15 years with 5 year exit clauses.
The only time we’ve seen clients cancel community solar is if they go out of business, or they are interested in developing solar on-site for a utility account that is already participating in community solar. The caveat here is that both a community solar subscription and on-site solar are a form of a net-metering credit, but you can only receive one type of credit on the bill. Meaning you have to cancel one to use the other.
In this scenario, we work with the municipality to determine what sites they’re potentially interested in developing, and we work alongside the solar developer to make it a simple transition if they end up wanting to do that down the line.
Q: What are the mechanics of Community Solar?
A: Community solar is built off the back of the VDER program in NY. Essentially, this is the value of the renewable energy being pumped back into the grid. One part of the VDER is stable to keep the program consistent, and the other moves with the market. VDER rates have been somewhat stable in recent years, and as more solar gets developed in the state, we predict the value of the VDER program will go down.
PS: This is why it’s important to capture a maximized discount with community solar NOW instead of waiting and seeing a smaller savings amount in the future!
Conclusion
Many municipalities come up with similar questions that they want to see answers to.
Community Solar sounds great on paper, seems like a predictable way to support clean energy & promote business sustainability; but common themes arise after our educational meetings.
Some central themes for municipalities are:
- how the program works, how they benefit, and how they can get others to benefit
- how the program serves the municipality, what are the considerations, and how do they fit into the plans they already have
We hope this article has been comprehensive, and if you think your organization could benefit from a community solar rollout, we would love to leverage our half-decade+ experience to serve you well.
You can book a complimentary educational call for your municipality at communitysolarauthority.com
