Community Solar Gardens

Solar gardens include a number of solar panels serving a specific group of people

You might have heard of P-Patches – small plots of land shared by neighbors to grow fruits, vegetables and flowers.  That concept, hundreds of years old, has been brought into the 21st century.  Today, some people are joining together to grow renewable energy!  Community solar gardens are another way that friends and neighbors can join together to increase the common good.

Instead of the expense of installing solar panels on your own home, a “solar garden” can be established in a single off-site location to serve a block, a building, or even a neighborhood.

Think of it as a mini solar farm – owned and operated by a group of people, all of whom draw on the free solar electricity generated by the panels.

The idea of solar gardens is perfect for homeowners with shaded rooftops (not ideal for solar arrays), condominium residents and even people who rent! As explained by Joy Hughes, the innovator/creator of the Solar Panel Hosting Company and SolarGardens.org, solar gardens work as follows:

Solar panels are installed on a nearby rooftop, or as a ground-mounted system on a plot of land owned or leased by the group (in order to install panels on a rooftop not owned by the community, a lease agreement is required with the building owner).  Each individual solar “gardener” must monitor and record the energy production from the specific panels that were installed to benefit that homeowner.  Subtract your energy usage and any extra energy that has been generated could result in a check from the utility company through a net metering or feed-in tariff arrangement.

While some companies like Google offer community solar power programs to their employees (see the video below), the goal of community solar gardens is to ensure that anyone – no matter where they work, their financial status or credit score, can own solar panels.

Harvesting solar power from rooftop solar gardens

For the concept of community solar gardens to really take off, more governments need to adopt laws governing net metering, feed-in tariffs, or offer other tax incentives.  Currently, group solar laws are in effect in Washington state, Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts.  In addition, Oregon, Indiana, Florida and Ontario, Canada authorize feed-in tariffs that allow for potential profit by the owners of solar panels that generate more electricity than used.

While the concept of community solar gardens is still relatively new, we expect it to quickly blossom.  The idea of joining together to lower the cost of a solar panel installation is very attractive to people looking to save on energy costs and lower their carbon emissions.

Maybe you’d like to spear-head a movement in your neighborhood to create a community solar power plant?  You could soon be harvesting solar power from your own 21st century P-Patch!

Tags: community solar, community solar gardens, community solar power plant, community solar power program, group solar, installing solar panels, solar farm, solar garden, solar gardens