Major US corporations embracing community solar
The Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA) says that household names such as Microsoft, Google, Walmart, Starbucks, Rivian, Wendy’s, and T-Mobile are just a few of the Fortune 500 companies that have signed agreements with community solar developers.
August 27, 2024 Anne Fischer
From pv magazine USA
Community solar has recently taken off, surpassing 7 GW of installed capacity in the United States. Research firm Wood Mackenzie said it expects community solar installed capacity to essentially double in five years.
Community solar typically involves a customer subscribing to a portion of an off-site solar project’s generating capacity, receiving credits on their utility bills for the electricity produced by the facility. The CCSA noted that household names such as Microsoft, Google, Walmart, Starbucks, Rivian, Wendy’s, and T-Mobile are just a few of the Fortune 500 companies that have signed agreements with community solar developers.
Corporations are signing onto community solar for several reasons, the first of which is that they are looking to meet their clean energy and sustainability goals. Distributed energy projects, like community solar, are smaller projects that are located on the distribution side of the energy grid and are generally up and running much faster than utility-scale projects. Furthermore, many community solar projects have an environmental justice component, often bringing lower-cost energy to low-income residents and supporting this cause support corporations’ ESG goals.