Burlington Free Press: Power from the sun for everyone
We’re thrilled to announce we’ve helped over 500 of your fellow Vermonters join our innovative Community Solar (CSA) program. As we celebrate the first anniversary of the CSA program, the milestone was highlighted in today’s Burlington Free Press cover story Community Solar: Power from the sun for everyone.
“It was a huge discovery we made last year,” said SunCommon spokeswoman Emily McManamy. “A bulk of our customers couldn’t go solar with us for a whole host of reasons from wrong roof orientation to finances. Some folks just don’t want rooftop solar on their own homes, but want to support the growth of solar in Vermont. We realized we could gather a group of people together with a common interest in solar.”
Nationwide, said McManamy, only about 15 percent of households can host rooftop solar arrays. As a result, according to GTM Research’s 2015 U.S. Solar Market Insight Report, “out of a total of over 100 million households in the U.S., more than 80 million are left out of the solar market today.”
Community solar arrays are SunCommon’s way of addressing that shortfall in Vermont. Since its launch one year ago, the CSA program has signed up more than 500 customers. Under the CSA program, Green Mountain Power customers sign up to support the array, receiving solar credits on their utility bills at a 7 percent discount from their normal rate for electricity. For every $100 they would normally spend, they’ll now spend $93 for the same power as part of the community solar array.
The Community Solar program is both innovative and complex. Some have asked how these projects come together to better foster conversations in the community. We’re happy to peel back that curtain. While we’ve made going solar easy for you, we’re handling a very complicated siting and permitting process to ensure more Vermonters can access this Community Solar solution.
One of the most common game-enders is wetlands, which don’t always look like wetlands, Mike McCarthy of SunCommon said.
“You’d be surprised,” he said. “You can be in a hayfield that’s been hayed for years and you think it’s a nice dry place, but if the water table is high or there are poorly draining soils it can be a wetland.”
McCarthy said it has happened to him about a dozen times this year. The landowner gets excited, everybody is fired up, ready to start the permitting process when a hydrology expert is brought to the site, digs down and finds a Class 2 wetland, scuttling the site.
And the latest hurdle comes as Green Mountain Power announces they’ve reached their net-metering cap. Thankfully, GMP is allowing all residential sized systems to move forward through 2016. And they have asked state regulators to allow them to approve a limited number of additional community arrays for construction in 2016. Simply put? Solar is popular in Vermont and membership space is getting tighter.
Both Vermont Electric Co-op and Green Mountain Power have already reached their net metering quotas, sooner than anyone expected. The Public Service Board is currently working on revised rules for 2017, but that leaves 2016 without room for additional arrays.
Perhaps you’re a homeowner living in the trees or have a roofline unsuitable for solar? Maybe owning your own solar system isn’t a great fit for you right now? Or you’re a renter looking for a solar solution to suit your lifestyle? Either way, we’re here to help.
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