(Image Credit: SolarPowerWorldOnline)
A lot of households in the USA are yet to feel the positive effects of solar generation.
This is because a lot of tenants do not own their property, they rent or live in multi-tenant buildings that don’t have efficient roofs for solar.
Community solar provides homeowners, renters and businesses equal access and opportunity to the environmental and economic benefits of solar. This includes low-to-moderate income households.
The passing of the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States has helped increased the appeal to invest in community solar.
What is Community Solar?
Overall, Community Solar refers to solar facilities that are shared by multiple community members who can receive credit for their electricity bills for the share of power that is produced.
This model is currently being deployed across the United States so consumers can experience the full benefits of solar.
Community solar facilities operate usually at less than 5MW electrical capacity.
Community Solar in the United States
In the United States, 41 states have at least 1 fully operational community solar project. A total capacity of 5.8GW was installed in the first half of 2023.
19 states have recognised the benefits shared renewable energy generation can have on their communities and are actively encouraging its growth through appropriate policies.
Over the next five years, the community solar market in the United States is set to register more than 6GW of total capacity.
The key principles of Community Solar are that all consumers should directly benefit from the programme and a full disclosure of the economic benefits are presented to users.
A successful deployment of community solar projects will lead to everyone benefitting from renewable energy generation and speed up the transition to Net Zero.
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