Community Solar

Our community solar projects have a Membership Interest cost of ~$3 per watt. That means that if you buy a 5-kilowatt Membership Interest, your cost of ownership is $15,000 ($3/watt x 5000 watts) before any tax credits are applied.

Yes, you own the solar panels that are included in your Membership Interest.

You can work with your own bank, or we can refer to VSECU or Mascoma Bank, both of which have worked with us on similar projects in the past.

In order to encourage more growth of renewable energy, the federal government has put incentives in place to help offset the cost. The Federal solar tax credit allows you to deduct 30% of the cost of investing in a solar energy system from your federal taxes. The 30% tax credit will be available until the end of 2032.

All of our Community Solar Projects are equipped with an electric meter that measures the amount of electricity that is generated and fed into the power grid. The electricity is measured in kilowatt hours. Each kilowatt hour has a monetary credit that is ~$0.14-$0.17 cents each, depending on the total size of the system. These monetary credits are applied to the electric bills of the Members according to their proportional interest in the project. As an example, let’s say that your Membership Interest generates 1,000 kilowatt hours in a given month. If each of those kilowatt hours has a credit value of $0.16, then you would see a credit of $136 off of your electric bill that month (15% is retained for operational costs). In the summer months when the sun is shining and the days are long, the Community Solar Project will generate significantly more power than it will in the winter. In months where the monetary value of the kilowatt-hours generated is greater than what you need to offset your electric bill, the excess credits will be banked with the utility and rolled forward to the next month. In this way, the excess credits generated during the summer can be saved and used during the winter when the panels are not as productive due to less available sunshine.

The rules for Net Metering in Vermont state that a customer can only receive credits from a single community Net Metered project (in addition to a solar array located on their property tied to the same meter).  So in order to maximize the investment,  we do an analysis to determine how much electricity would need to be generated from the Community Solar Project to offset the maximum allowable amount on a customer’s electric bill. If the customer still needs more electricity, it will continue to be provided by the electric utility as it is today.

Norwich Solar has created an LLC, RunTime, that is responsible for the operations and maintenance of the Community Solar project. Similar to a Condo Association, RunTime will manage the day to day operations of the project. There will be at least two Operations & Maintenance inspections scheduled each year to ensure that the solar project is operating at maximum efficiency.

The LLC that has been created for the management of the Community Solar project is specific to this project and is not directly affiliated with Norwich Solar. It will endure for the life of the Community Solar project.

Norwich Solar is always trying to help Energy Committees achieve their local goals and help all Vermonters achieve or exceed our goal of 90% Renewable Energy by 2050. Our Community Solar Projects can be located on land or large rooftops. We work with the property owner to lease the space needed for the construction of the Community Solar Project for a period of 25-35 years. We need the land (3-10 acres) to be located near powerlines, and it is best if it is relatively flat and not considered a wetland. If there is a property that you own, or if you know someone else with a property like this that might be willing to lease it, please get in touch with us and we can do an initial assessment to quickly gauge the feasibility of using the property for the creation of a Community Solar Project.