Media Coverage
October 10, 2023
Washington Post: Half of Americans can’t install solar panels. Here’s how they can plug into the sun.
No roof, no solar power.
That has been the dispiriting equation shutting out roughly half of all Americans from plugging into the sun.
But signing up for solar soon might be as easy as subscribing to Netflix. Scores of new small solar farms that sell clean, local electricity directly to customers are popping up. The setup, dubbed “community solar,” is designed to bring solar power to people who don’t own their own homes or can’t install panels — often at prices below retail electricity rates.
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The biggest benefit may be expanding access to clean energy to the roughly half of U.S. consumers and businesses not able to install their own solar panels. “The great promise of community solar is it allows everyone to be part of the energy transition,” says Brandon Smithwood of Dimension Renewable Energy, a company that has financed more than 1,000 MW of solar projects, “and not feel they’re being left behind.”
