How Multifamily Projects Can Utilize Community Solar
As states and jurisdictions take actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, many localities are considering ways to limit direct (from heating and cooling) and indirect (consumption of electricity by the building occupant) emissions from the building sector. One strategy for builders to consider is the integration or addition of solar photovoltaics (PV).
However, according to NREL, 49% of households and 48% of businesses cannot host a PV system of adequate size on their property or virtually net meter an entire system themselves. That means half the market needs another solution to take advantage of solar opportunities.
It can be particularly challenging for multifamily developers to incorporate on-site solar because of:
- Lack of eligible roof square footage for solar panels (e.g., because of roof orientation, structural load limitations, or other uses for the space such as equipment or outdoor amenities).
- Infrastructure costs for connecting panels to the building system, metering and battery storage.
- Operation and maintenance requirements.
- Subscriber to Community Solar: A master-metered building signs up for bill credits from an off-site solar system. Those credits could be applied both to the common space and tenant bills.
- Subscription Aggregator: A multi-metered building signs up for bill credits on behalf of tenants and distributes credits accordingly to those tenants.