What is a Community Solar Array?
While SunCommon has helped thousands of Vermonters and New Yorkers go solar, about half of all homes can’t host solar because they don’t face the sun, or are shaded by trees or chimneys. We didn’t want those barriers to get in the way, so we created a new solar solution available to everyone: Community Solar Array (CSA).
A CSA can provide for about 30 homes with no upfront cost and savings every year compared to your annual utility cost of electricity. By joining our CSA you’ve joined a new, renewables-driven community helping to build our clean energy future.
Landowners with just an acre of available land can help others in their community support solar by hosting a Community Solar Array. SunCommon handles the permitting and logistics and assembles the membership through our community outreach model.
What are RECs?
Renewable Energy Certificates document the environmental attributes produced by renewable energy sources, and can be sold to contribute funds needed to build a solar project like a CSA. Currently, Vermont does not have a renewable portfolio standard that provides a market to buy or sell RECs within Vermont. So, the RECs may be sold to utilities in neighboring states. Where SunCommon sells RECs associated with a CSA, the buyer of the Renewable Energy Credits may claim the environmental attributes. Given the way electrons flow, the power from the solar array typically flows to neighbors of the array. A CSA Member does not receive solar energy, but receives solar credits in the form of cash on her/his utility bill.
RECs are one of the financial attributes that are bundled together to make it possible to offer CSA membership at a low monthly payment and guaranteed savings. We expect Vermont to adopt our own renewable portfolio standard in 2017, after which the RECs associated with the electricity generated by CSAs will support Vermont’s clean energy goals.
Want to learn more about how our Community Solar projects come together? Happy to help.
That’s why we’ve put together this Q+A.
Want to explore joining a Community Solar Array?
SunCommon ® believes that everyone has the right to a healthy environment and safer world — and clean energy is where it starts. Energy from the sun can power our lives, heat our homes and fuel our cars. Our mission is to tear down the barriers to renewable energy. We do that by making it easy and affordable for all Vermonters to go solar.
Want to see which solar option is a fit for you?
I have two kids and I’ve lived in Vermont all my life. Our previous home was a 30 year old mobile home. It was cold as heck in the winter and a hot sweat box in the summer. We needed a better home, way of living and to be much more energy efficient. With our new home we went solar! I love that we can get energy from the sun. We’re just sucking up the energy from the sky. I would’ve gone solar earlier if I had known how easy SunCommon made the financing. It’s easy. The solar is up there and I don’t have to deal with it. I just check my GMP monitoring and see how much I’ve consumed and how much I’ve generated. I can just hear the money – cha-ching! – coming off my bill as I watch the progress my solar is making.
– Simone Colby, Vergennes Solar Homeowner since 2014.
Want to explore your solar options?
I’m going to be happy as the dickens to see this array every morning when I get up.
– Harvey Bushey, Fairfield Community Solar land host
Want to explore joining a Community Solar Array?
Click here to learn more about Subscription Community Solar Arrays!
SunCommon® believes that everyone has the right to a healthy environment and safer world – and clean energy is where it starts. Energy from the sun can power our lives, heat our homes and fuel our cars. Our mission is to tear down the barriers to renewable energy. We do that by making it easy and affordable for all Vermonters to go solar.
We’re here to help you find your Vermont solar solution.
Our family dairy farm has been farming our fields since 1924. As Vermont dairy farmers, it’s very important for us to budget our expenses to remain a viable business. Since milk prices are unpredictable, we were looking for ways to invest in our farm to maintain some predictable expenditures. This is why we chose to host a Community Solar Array on our land.
By hosting a Community Solar Array, not only have we secured predictable, constant electricity rates for our farm, but we’ve also developed a new form of the working landscape.
– Molly Magnan, Magnan Brothers Dairy Farm.
Want to explore joining a Community Solar Array?
What are RECs?
Renewable Energy Certificates document the environmental attributes produced by renewable energy sources, and can be sold to contribute funds needed to build a solar project like a CSA. Currently, Vermont does not have a renewable portfolio standard that provides a market to buy or sell RECs within Vermont. So, the RECs may be sold to utilities in neighboring states. Where SunCommon sells RECs associated with a CSA, the buyer of the Renewable Energy Credits may claim the environmental attributes. Given the way electrons flow, the power from the solar array typically flows to neighbors of the array. A CSA Member does not receive solar energy, but receives solar credits in the form of cash on her/his utility bill.
RECs are one of the financial attributes that are bundled together to make it possible to offer CSA membership at a low monthly payment and guaranteed savings. We expect Vermont to adopt our own renewable portfolio standard in 2017, after which the RECs associated with the electricity generated by CSAs will support Vermont’s clean energy goals.
Want to learn more about how our Community Solar projects come together? Happy to help.
That’s why we’ve put together this Q+A.
So, what do heat pumps sound like? They’re quiet.
A heat pump is a quiet, efficient technology that easily heats and cools your home at the touch of a button. No more rumbling oil furnace in the basement. The Mitsubishi heat pump has 5 quiet fan levels. We’ll demo 3 of the fan settings today, including the maximum speed which quickly heats or cools the home.
While this clean, efficient heat pump technology certainly isn’t new, it is new to many Vermont households. So, we took one of our own heat pumps for a test drive to give you an idea of what this unit sounds like.
Want to learn more about pairing this cool technology with solar for affordable heating and cooling? Check it out.
By Michael Bielawski | August 5, 2015
HARDWICK – The state’s 15 percent net metering cap for Hardwick Electric has been reached, minus about .5 KW capacity or too small for additional projects. HED general manager Mike Sullivan said some people contacted the utility asking why HED won’t raise the cap.
“Utilities can go above and beyond the 15 percent with residential projects only,” said Sullivan. “Some utilities such as Washington Electric Cooperative have chosen to go above the 15 percent. The customer contributions to the maintenance cost of the distribution system are included and ours are excluded. We don’t get payments for that.”
Unlike Washington Electric, HED net metering customers don’t pay the $15 fee for general service like pole work and other repairs that other HED customers pay.
Sullivan said the net metering initiative in general was a huge success in terms of getting people on board, building the market and driving down costs.
“The goal was to get people interested and investing in renewable energy efforts and to kick-start the industry,” he said. “That’s been done. The goals have been accomplished.”
In addition to the missing $15 service fee, there were other expenses for HED regarding net metering. HED is legally obligated to provide power, currently at around 7 or 8 cents per kWh. In the end, HED pays around 27 cents per kWh for the power and doesn’t get anything in return, he said.
SunCommon, one of the residential solar distributors for this area, will no longer be actively promoting products in Hardwick. The company’s public relations person, Emily McManamy, said, “A Hardwick Electric customer can build a solar system, but since HED has reached their minimum solar capacity and has chosen to stop permitting new net-metered solar systems,” she said, “the solar homeowner won’t be compensated by HED for the excess power they’re producing in the middle of the day that flows back to the utility.”
She said that means it makes no financial sense to build solar and then give most of the power to the utility without compensation or credit. “While the 30 percent Federal Income Tax Credit exists and is of great value for Vermonters to tap into, the largest benefit of solar is the ability to net meter and accrue solar credits. Without HED’s participation in that program, much of the value of solar is lost, regardless of which solar company they work with or local and federal incentives.”
The Federal Income Tax Credit will also expire at the end of 2016. Sullivan said there are what’s called Act 99 workshops, open to the public, in Montpelier. The purpose of these workshops is to decide how net metering will go forward with the expiration of the tax credit and as well as other changes.
“Until these changes are known, HED has decided it would be imprudent to make any additional investments in net metering,” Sullivan read from the HED website.
In another HED and solar related development, HED determined it will not choose option A for its own 1 MW solar project at the end of Billings Road. Option A is HED would own the project from day one. This project is still preliminary and not guaranteed to happen.
The remaining options B and C have a developer come in and build the project and operate it for 25 years under what’s called a purchase power agreement. Under contract, HED buys the power for 25 years and then it owns it. The difference between options B and C is with option C HED would pay for 30 percent of the power upfront, which could bring down the cost for customers.
HED is also likely planning to invest in another 1 MW share of a larger 10 MW Vermont Public Power Supply Authority solar project nearing completion over multiple locations. This project is also preliminary and in development. Sullivan wants the public to be clear these two initiatives are not net metering projects.
“As a utility we are not allowed to build net metering projects,” he said. “HED has requirements coming in 2017 and in 2032 we have to be 75 percent renewable energy. We’re trying to be pro-active and be on the front of the train instead of the caboose.”
To continue reading Hardwick Electric discontinues net-metered Vermont solar, pick up a copy of your local Hardwick Gazette. Thanks!
A new technology that both warms your home in winter,
and cools in summer.
August 1, 2014 by Stewart Ledbetter
Until you see one, it’s a little hard to believe. Though heat pumps have been used for years in Europe and southern states for air conditioning, these new ones effectively work in reverse in regions like ours when it is freezing outside. They run on electricity so efficient they can be as cheap as heating with wood.
Zech Gardner is showing us around his new house. It’s on a hillside in Charlotte about 2200 square feet or so and aside from a tiny woodstove in the living room, the home relies exclusively on heat pump technology.
Remember how cold it was last winter? “Total through the whole winter, we spent $356 on electric heat and we used a little bit more than a cord of wood which cost me about $180,” says Gardner, “So, $500 to heat the house for the winter.”
Now it’s true the Gardner’s home is very well insulated with triple-paned windows, but it also reflects the ultra high efficiency of this new heat pump technology.
One unit mounted high on the wall in the living room connects to an air exchanger outside the size of a big suitcase providing the same efficiency to heat or cool your home year round.
But, you don’t need a brand new house or even a very efficient one to benefit from heat pump technology. The state’s largest electric utility and environmental groups are urging homeowners of every stripe to give this a look.
Air source heat pumps cost between $3500 and $4500 each, including installation. Some homes might need more than one. “A heat pump costs about 1/3 to heat your home in the winter of what you’d be spending on oil or propane. One third,” says Clary Franko, Lead Organizer at SunCommon.
Advocates point out that heat pumps pair well with solar, which the Gardners just added to their roof a month ago. That brought this month’s electric bill to zero. A big change from the old farmhouse the Gardners used to live in across town.
“So the winter before we lived here, I spent over $3500 in oil plus three cords of wood to heat that house,” says Gardner. “This house is definitely more comfortable in the winter than that house was.”
At 1:07 p.m. the dark clouds passed and the sun shone over an event especially appreciative of a blue sky day: the first-ever SunCommon Sun CARnival! SunCommon celebrated the pairing of solar technology and electric vehicles by inviting electric car owners from around the region to showcase their wheels of the future.
The CARnival was about neighbors helping neighbors expand their knowledge and fuel their curiosity. SunCommon staff were on hand to help greet the 450+ people and coordinate EV test rides, but the beauty of this day was the sense of pride and ownership each driver brought to this festive block party. An unexpected but welcome surprise came when an EV driver, having seen our sign out front, pulled into the CARnival and asked if he could participate. Moments later he popped the hood, rolled the windows down and invited CARnival guests for a test ride. Our collection of EV drivers shared their stories and offered a real life lens to help demystify this new piece of technology.
As drivers took a spin around the block with community members, they offered a taste of how an EV fits into a Vermonter’s lifestyle. No sales pitch, just conversation. Neighbor to neighbor, community members peppered drivers with questions about car seats, road trips, camping, golf bag clearance in the trunk, performance in snow season, mud season, stick season…any season.
The event was focused on people and their families, so while us big kids played around in the EVs, children and families enjoyed free Open Hearth Pizza, a solar-powered bouncy house, music and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
In keeping with our belief in bringing joy to our community, SunCommon recently acquired its first-ever solar-powered bouncy house! You’ll start seeing our inflatable creation at various community events and festivals.
Now this is something we love to see! This particular community member was so curious about solar and EV that his family needed to peel him away from inspecting under the hood of each car. The excitement and curiosity we saw at the Sun CARnival perfectly fulfilled our goal to spark interest and educate drivers about their options for better energy independence.
Not only did our beloved community attend the event, but so did our local media! Big thanks to WPTZ, WCAX and the Burlington Free Press for swinging by our CARnival. Each outlet produced lovely stories about the event which you can read below.
Burlington Free Press: Soaking up the sun at the CARnival
WPTZ: Car show focuses on going green
Speaking of our welcome media attention, here is Solar Organizer Clary Franko speaking with Alex Apple from WCAX. Clary was the face behind the Sun CARnival and we owe her a big thank you for planning such a relaxing, informative and well-attended event. Thanks Clary!
We so enjoyed meeting and greeting each and every community member that stopped by the CARnival and look forward to seeing you at the next event!
