On April 18th, the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) changed how community solar gets credited – for the better! The PSC decided to attribute more value for each solar credit you receive from your Community Solar Array (CSA).

Remember: as a CSA member, you aren’t connected to the array with wires, but through your utility’s accounting function which divvies up the array’s production based on each household’s share. You’ll see your share of solar credits on your utility statement each month, offsetting your bill.

So what’s changed?

You’ll always get the standard “value-stack” rate ($/kWh) for the energy your panels generate. That rate is determined by the PSC and varies frequently, just like utility rates. In addition, you’ll get a solar incentive: when you signed up, we thought the solar incentive would be an additional 2.5 cents/kWh, but the PSC has just approved a higher rate of 3 cents/kWh.

But, instead of seeing this particular 3 cent/kWh incentive show up on your monthly bills, you’ll get it back all at once — more money up front means greater certainty of savings for you! It has been calculated by the PSC to be $0.40/watt, or $140 for every solar panel you purchased.
 We’re waiting on the rebate from NYSERDA and will pass it along to you as soon as we get it. We’ll send along a more detailed explanation at that time.

So, because of this new upfront payment, the value of your solar credits applied to your monthly bills will be slightly lower than we originally estimated.
 As mentioned, you’ll get the value-stack rate, and our best estimates show it at about 60% of Central Hudson’s retail rate in year 1.

When you receive your first bill with solar credits, let us know if you have questions — And don’t forget to watch your mailbox for that rebate check from us in the next couple months!

Click here to read the PSC’s official press release.