Though more affordable, rooftop solar units remain out of reach for many consumers. Some can’t afford the initial investment. Others have poor locations or simply don’t own their home.
But they can participate in community solar gardens, buying shares or panels in a large project put together by a utility or private developer. The garden puts energy into the grid, and members get a credit on their power bills.
A forum organized by the 7 Rivers Alliance will give business and community leaders from the Coulee Region an introduction to solar energy.
Executive Director Lisa Herr said the forum grew out of grassroots interest. Herr said the decision by Congress last year to extend federal tax credits for solar and wind energy “really upped the ante for incentives for businesses and communities to look at solar installation.”
These community solar projects create opportunities — but also risks.
“They can go upside down,” Herr said. “For a small community, this can be devastating.”
Solar electric generation in the U.S. rose 43.4 percent last year, according to the Energy Information Administration, and not just in sun-drenched western states.
Minnesota added 6,000 megawatt hours, a growth of 36 percent. Wisconsin saw smaller growth but still added 4,000 mwh. The majority of the growth was in distributed generation, projects owned and operated by private citizens or companies.
In 2014, Vernon Electric installed a 305-kilowatt community solar array in Westby, the first of its kind in Wisconsin. It sold out in a day.
The cooperative has a waiting for another project, although CEO Joe McDonald said current prices have put a second project on the back burner. (Vernon Electric was able to offer panels for $600 by piggybacking on a neighboring project by Dairyland Power. McDonald said a smaller garden now would cost more in the range of $800 to $900 per panel.)
In Minnesota, Tri-County Electric Cooperative also has been a solar pioneer, developing both utility-owned and community solar projects.
Investor-owned utilities are also getting into the game.
Xcel Energy is seeking proposals for up to 3 megawatts of community solar gardens in Wisconsin. In Minnesota, the company plans to develop 287 megawatts of utility-owned solar gardens to meet state guidelines.
While community solar gardens are more expensive than competitively bid utility projects, Xcel says it’s trying to meet consumer demand.
“Regardless of the mandate, we’d offer some kind of community solar gardens, because our customers want it,” said Lee Gabler, senior director of customer strategy and solutions. “Customers are looking for different options. We want to provide those options.”
In Iowa, Alliant Energy is seeking developer proposals for up to 10 megawatts in new solar projects, which could increase its system-wide solar generation by 50 percent.
The 7 Rivers forum will feature John Farrell, director of the Energy Democracy Initiative at the Institute of Local Self-Reliance, who argues that solar energy technology has the potential to upend the utility model in place for the better part of a century and allow communities to have more control over their energy supply.
“We can decentralize or disperse the way we generate electricity with renewables,” he said. “We can also do the same thing with authority over the grid system. We can disperse the power to control how the grid operates and the economic benefits of power generation more widely so that communities that have previously been sending their money out of the community to pay for their energy would be able to keep more of their money at home.”
©2016 the La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, Wis.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
