Arcadia offers community solar in nine states, with more to come. The company pairs you with a local solar project, an easy way to help nudge your community toward more renewable power. Best of all, there aren\u2019t any fees or contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ll explain why we like Arcadia and don\u2019t like other \u201cgreen energy\u201d providers like CleanChoice below. But first, let\u2019s cover the basics of community solar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is community solar?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Community solar is, at the simplest level, any set of solar panels that offers up the power it generates to more than one person in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The goal of community solar projects is to provide clean energy to homes that are currently ineligible for solar<\/a>. To encourage them, 22 states have passed legislation that allows community solar projects to sell power to the grid at fair rates, and create easier billing for customers. Even without that help, community solar projects exist in 19 other states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Subscribers of community solar pay into the project, either upfront or monthly, helping pay for its maintenance and other costs and balancing out its revenue across high and low generation months. In return, subscribers get a discount on their electric bill and help reduce carbon emissions on the power grid.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Community solar has grown 120 percent every year since 2010; it\u2019s now in 39 states and the District of Columbia. The latest figures from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory<\/a> (NREL) show 5.2 gigawatts of community solar available, enough for about 600,000 households. But there are 120 million powered homes in the U.S., and up to 85 percent of them may be unable to install solar panels, whether due to renting, roof conditions, or simply financing. So there\u2019s still a big need for more community solar, and in more places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It might sound like community solar sends power from a solar array straight to your home. While it would be neat to see a separate cable labeled \u201cClean Energy\u201d plugged into your breaker box, that\u2019s not how it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Put simply, and breezing past a bunch of variables and regulations, here\u2019s what happens in an ideal setup:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a larger sense, community solar \u201cworks\u201d because solar power, even when built with new equipment, is cheaper than generating power with fossil fuels<\/a>. You get a discount because the economics of solar are so good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For customers, especially in states with encouraging laws, it\u2019s an easy way to save, usually a guaranteed amount, on electric costs. It also cleans up your power mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Community solar projects are showing up in more places than you\u2019d assume. Searching the news recently, I found community solar panels installed on vacant airport land in Florida<\/a> , a capped landfill near Niagara Falls<\/a>, and the roof of a FedEx facility in Washington, D.C.<\/a> Many towns, businesses, and other landowners are looking at large, flat spaces and wondering if they might be better used generating power\u2013and revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The National Renewable Energy Laboratory counted more than 2,000 community solar projects<\/a> in December 2021. The largest share of community solar power collection, by far, comes from Florida, with Minnesota, New York, and Massachusetts each producing about half of what the Sunshine State sends out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The easiest path to community solar is getting a zero upfront cost solar subscription with a single, consolidated bill. Our favorite community solar provider is Arcadia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While researching this guide, I signed up through Arcadia\u2019s platform for a community solar subscription in Washington, D.C. (a place with solar-enabling legislation). I provided my address and utility provider, reviewed the terms (no contracts or cancellation fees, guaranteed savings), and authorized Arcadia to handle billing through my utility. I was on a waitlist for a couple weeks, but then got my spot on a nearby (Virginia) farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When my next month\u2019s electric bill is due, Arcadia will handle the back-and-forth crediting between Pepco, the farm, and my share of it, then give me a 10% discount. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not the kind of \u201cmeter running backwards\u201d excitement that rooftop solar owners (occasionally) enjoy, but it still creates real carbon reductions and bill savings. No one gigantic home is using up all the power, and I get a financial incentive in even the grayest of months. And by signing up and participating, I am, hopefully, spurring further development in community solar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arcadia is active in nine states as of this writing, with a few more due to come online soon. You can sign up for Arcadia\u2019s waitlist even if there\u2019s no community solar in your area; when a project opens up, you\u2019ll have a place in line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are other companies connecting homes to community solar. Most projects<\/a> involve either up-front costs or fixed monthly payments. And each of them requires that you look into their terms of subscription: contract length, cancellation periods, single or multiple bills, and other fees. Solar United Neighbors has a deeper guide for how to shop for community solar<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With that in mind, check out Solar United Neighbors\u2019 search tool<\/a>. You can see the offerings from major community solar providers in each area, including Nexamp, CleanChoice, Neighborhood Sun, and Arcadia, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For most community solar subscribers, the primary economic benefit is a potential discount on monthly electric bills of up to 10%. That\u2019s far from the greatest benefit, but it is motivating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your solar discount has larger implications. For every megawatt of distributed solar power, a different megawatt that comes from coal, natural gas, burned waste, or other carbon-emitting sources is not needed\u2014at least in theory. The more subscribers to solar power, the more power comes from renewable, non-emitting sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As noted earlier, the power from a community solar project isn\u2019t traveling directly to your home. The power coming into your home and out of your outlets is from whatever mix of sources your electric utility chooses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my own case, my Washington, D.C. electricity comes from this mix of sources, as provided by Arcadia\u2019s panel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n My community solar membership is putting green power into the grid, encouraging businesses and farms and communities to host their own money-making projects, and possibly encouraging more people to sign up, when I tell them about my 10% discount. But fossil fuels had to be burned to give me 58% of the power my home actually used. Changing that requires broader, more direct action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To make community solar available everywhere, every state needs to not only allow community solar projects with legislation, but encourage their development with fair metering and pricing policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even where community solar is enabled and encouraged, there are choke points. Arcadia\u2019s Richard Caperton notes that in areas like Washington, D.C., New York City, and other built-out cities, finding usable space for community panels is difficult. Businesses, warehouses, parking lots, and other large roofs can host community solar, but need to be convinced of the benefits and ushered through the permits and build-out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Connecting community solar to the grid is another challenge. Jenny Heeter, researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, notes that each project must request to be connected to the grid, then be approved, validated, and inspected. It could then have multiple changes imposed on it by a utility or other regulations, delaying the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As pointed out recently by John Oliver<\/a> and Property Brother Jonathan Scott<\/a>, among others, some utilities actively block any power-generating projects they didn\u2019t build themselves<\/a>. Utilities often function as an endorsed monopoly in their regions, with broad powers to manage energy production and pricing. Many argue that allowing customers to get cheaper solar power, whether from their roof or community projects, endangers their business model and could raise rates for non-solar customers. But the result of this opposition is less clean electricity and more carbon emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Community choice solar, or CCAs, are not the same thing as a community solar subscription.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The major difference is that community choice usually involves automatic enrollment of everybody within a certain area to a solar project, authorized by local governments. By having a large base of default customers with years of service ahead, solar projects can negotiate competitive rates to provide their power. It\u2019s opt-out and wide-scale, versus the opt-in nature of community choice projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some community choice enrollments also involve renewable energy certificates, which we\u2019ll explain next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may have received mailed advertisements for companies pitching you on \u201cswitching\u201d your power to renewable energy. CleanChoice is a multi-state marketer for this service, and there are other regional companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As with community solar, your actual power still comes from your utility. What CleanChoice and others do is authorize themselves as your electric provider and sign you up for a fixed rate, usually higher than your utility provider<\/a>. CleanChoice recently offered me a total 18.6 cents per kilowatt-hour rate for REC-backed power, a kind of climate offset. My local utility supply rate is about 8 cents\/kWh, though it\u2019s more like 13 cents\/kWh after delivery and other fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CleanChoice\u2019s mailed marketing for their energy-credit-based power plans can look a lot like important mail from your energy company.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We strongly recommend not signing up for CleanChoice though.<\/strong> While clean energy offsets are rooted in good intentions, the company has a history of questionable practices<\/a>, including sudden rate hikes, confusing mail advertisements (like the one featured above), and, according to one environmental nonprofit<\/a>, buying bad quality RECs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n CleanChoice also offers a community solar product, with a monthly bill discount similar to Arcadia. Looking into their Washington, D.C. offerings, though, the 5% discounts can be tied to lengthy commitments<\/a>. We\u2019d definitely recommend looking for other options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Companies like CleanChoice use your payments to buy, resell, and retire renewable energy certificates<\/a> (RECs). Doing so is a kind of offset against the fossil fuel sources your electric company may be using to generate your power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roughly 7.5 million electric customers voluntarily paid for RECs to balance their power usage in 2020, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. That\u2019s about 5% of power customers nationwide, though a big chunk of those people are part of community choice opt-out programs (explained above).<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow does community solar work?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Where are community solar projects built?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How can I sign up for community solar?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What other options are there for community solar sign-up?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s the benefit of community solar for me?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Does community solar make my home energy 100% renewable?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/_2z9LBhzZoDmUJHTGP5nU7EgkRiW0KVj6xNr30TCRzwM9EML46z3-s3PsygbvCBVfr0zI_7Dhk-FAgia9mDHssi_n7tlB75jLdnEWi8vduDKiEwBq7wSOfLAw5MaL21jj3Q6w9tepRxUqgz9xQ\")
Why isn\u2019t community solar available everywhere?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What about CCAs?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What about CleanChoice?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/kgsGgFCckJKVEcX-yaDDOX2hipbuQzVHS9eTM1O5ze1tBdgxeuEC-UIdd28EHGqnIh51QSZp_umXaQeF27rz8Z0XNXu38_fAzXqTDbacfLkmMaPbgjIObP13gdipPq_FE46iY_4usR18hMCmRg\")
What are RECs?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n