For Marylanders, there are several barriers to entry for renewable energy usage through solar panel installation. For example, renters might not be allowed to install solar on their homes, some buildings might have too much shading for solar to be feasible, others might not be able to front the installation cost. Luckily, Maryland is testing a community solar pilot program to make solar energy a possibility for those who would not otherwise have access. Here’s how Hailee explains it:
The Community Solar Program is pretty much what it sounds like: Participants buy into a large solar array that may or may not be on their land, and get a portion or all of their energy from the array.
Essentially, here’s how it works: Someone finds a good place to put solar panels (an apartment rooftop, a warehouse roof, top of a parking garage, empty field, over a landfill, unused farmland, etc.) and installs an array there. The power gets run back to the utility, and allocated to certain residents or buildings that are subscribers to the program. The subscribers pay a reduced rate for the allocated solar power relative to the utility’s standard rate.
It is especially beneficial to low-income housing or apartment rental buildings, because the people occupying these spaces wouldn’t have the money or physical space or ability to install panels on their roof otherwise. This offers them an avenue to purchase clean energy AND lower their electric bills. To put this in perspective, low-income households have utility bills comparable to middle and high income households, so they pay a disproportionate and burdensome amount of their income on energy.
For scale, a 2MW array is the maximum size in most state’s programs. That would require about 10 acres of land, and provide power for 1,200 homes. The installations of community solar arrays are still eligible for state and federal tax incentives for solar installation.
Below are details for the Community Solar programs in Washington, DC and Maryland:
Washington DC
- No cap on amount of power that can be installed
- Panels can be installed on a building, either by the owner, or by a third party through a Power Purchase Agreement and the electricity can be allocated to another building or specific people
- Excellent SREC market in DC that helps this program
- DC requires a certain percentage of their utility power to come from renewables, so the utility will buy from those producing solar power
Maryland
- Pilot Program
- Allows for 210 MW installed over 3 years
- Credits are at full retail rate (you get the same benefit that you would from having the panels directly on your roof)
- 2MW max size per array. The subscribers must be in the same utility boundary as the panels (BGE, Pepco, etc.)
- Portion of allotment is reserved for low/medium income residents
- Each utility will be allocated a certain portion, application process will go through the utility, process is not clear yet