shared solar for low to moderate income

Joy Hughes - NY Shared Solar Strategies for Inclusion (Solar One 4 Dec 2015)

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Community Shared Solar Strategies for Inclusion

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Joy Hughes, Solar Gardens Institute [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


• Community Garden Metaphor - “Like a community garden, except you get a patch of panels instead of a patch of vegetables.”

!• Subscription model - Anyone can participate - multi-unit, renters, affordable

housing, shaded locations, and historic districts. !• Off-Site Subscribers can be located anywhere in utility service territory.

• Distributed Generation – Small to mid-size system connects to local power lines or substation.

• Virtual Net Metering – Credit directly on the subscribers bill for subscriber’s portion of the array.

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Community Shared Solar A “Solar Garden”


Solar Gardens Cash and Energy Flow

Incentive

Subscriber

Utility

Solar Garden

Credit on Bill

Panel PurchaseMoney

Energy

EnergyEn

ergy


Size and LocationSmall: Vermont!

2 Subscribers (Ben and Jerry) on Ben’s Guest House

Large: San Francisco!Valencia Gardens HUD Housing

260 Units

Host SitesRooftop!

Schools, Apartment Buildings, Warehouses, Storage Units

Ground-Mount!Brownfields, Water Treatment Plants, Airports, Parking Lots


Solar Gardens Institute

solargardens.org

Mission: !• To educate and learn from the public about community solar

energy. !

• To promote community solar energy policy at the federal level and in each state !

• To assist local organizations in organizing, developing, and managing community-owned solar energy projects everywhere. !

• To make affordable solar energy available for all humanity !

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http://solargardens.org


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Solar Gardeners

!Every project has a champion !Both community organizer and project manager !Steep learning curve - how do we accelerate this process?

Ellensburg Community Renewables Park


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National Community Solar Partnership

!!68 Partners and growing - states, utilities, developers, nonprofits, banks, universities !Focus on LMI - over $500 million in commitments

White House, DOE SunShot, USDA, HUD, EPA


Clarifying Questions!!

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(5 minutes)


Investment Tax Credit Expiration• Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer! !• Federal tax credit 30% -> 10% end 2016

!• IRS notice 2013-70 - subscribers may claim tax

credit for offsite solar !• Case Study:

Kehila Synagogue, CA Nonprofit finance (Re-Volv) Nonprofit install (SunWork) Energy Savings


Securities Law!!!

The “Howey Test” 1. investment of money due to 2. an expectation of profits arising from 3. a common enterprise 4. which depends solely on the efforts of a promoter or third

party !

Strategies!• Utility, nonprofit and cooperative exemptions !• Direct public offerings (DPOs) !• JOBS Act !• Municipal Bonds !!!


Concerns for Low-Moderate Income and People of Color• Under-representation in solar market

!• Renting - split incentive

!• Credit rating system

!• History of Exploitation - Environmental Justice

!• Affordability !


• Renting - split incentive- Solar Gardens for renters!

!• Under-representation in solar market

- Extra share of Solar Gardens!!• Credit rating system

- “Energy Rating” + loan guarantees!!• History of Exploitation - Environmental Justice

- Energy Democracy + local leader involvement!!• Affordability

- 10-20% or more savings needed for subscriber!!

Solutions for Low-Moderate Income and People of Color


Cooperatives

• Solution to Securities, Tax issues (Case Study: Co-op Power, MA)

!• LMI Solution - member to member micro-loans !• “Energy Democracy” !!!


Nonprofits

• Grid Alternatives - Large donations and grants provide free power for affordable housing using volunteer labor (Case Study: Grand Valley Power Solar Garden, CO - 8 Households)

!• Re-Volv - Revolving loan fund seeded with crowdfunding (CA) !• Solstice Initiative - Subscriber marketing (MA)

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Direct Public Offerings (For-Profit)

• Up to $5 million securities offering within a single state !• Cutting-Edge Capital provides technical assistance !• Case Study - SunSpeed Electric Vehicle Charging (CA) !• Case Study - Solar Mosaic “Old” model (2012-2013)

1500 investors in community projects, $2.3 million !

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Open Standards / Open Source: A Growing Movement

Open Solar Outdoor

Test Field


Benefits of Open Standards For Shared Renewables

• Lower cost to subscribers !

• Lower barriers to entry for developers !• Less work for utilities and billing software providers !• Opens door to community initiated projects !• Makes smaller projects possible


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Thank you! !

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Joy Hughes, Solar Gardens Institute [email protected]

719-207-3097 !

Visit solargardens.org and join the mailing list

mailto:[email protected]

http://solargardens.org