Your Community Solar Primer

Whenever I share my role as a financial analyst at PowerMarket, one of the most common responses I receive is:

“But, what is community solar?”

It’s a fair question. Most people understand and support clean energy conceptually, but solar energy as a community resource is a relatively new concept.

As an economics graduate with a passion for environmental justice, I was previously disillusioned by much of the sustainability industry. “Solutions” seemed to reinforce higher production, consumption, and costs, while remaining out of reach for many consumers and disconnected from true economic equity.

Then, I learned about the work being done at PowerMarket.

Working on the finance side of community solar was an unexpectedly perfect alignment of my values and background. It gave me the opportunity to help deliver tangible financial benefits to individuals while contributing to a larger, collective clean energy system. And, so can you.

So, let’s break down what community solar is, how it works, and why it matters.

How Community Solar Works
Community solar allows individuals and businesses to access solar energy without installing solar panels on their own roofs. This allows everyone to benefit from solar energy, including those who live in apartments or townhomes or those who otherwise lack the means to install solar panels.

Here’s how the energy flows:

We digitally connect subscribers to solar farms, which are equipped to harvest sunlight. If you've ever driven through the country, sprawling with fields and farmland, you might have passed one of these wide fields packed end-to-end with a sea of solar panels. When built in cities, they’re often on top of warehouses.

Either way, this clean energy feeds directly into the local utility grid, which then distributes electricity to your household through your existing utility company, without changing anything about your utility service or physical residence.

This model expands access to clean energy by removing physical and financial barriers and by allowing one project to benefit hundreds of households, instead of just one.

How Your Solar Subscription Becomes Savings
When you enroll in community solar, you’re assigned a share of a solar farm’s electricity output. The dollar equivalent of your share of energy is credited to your utility bill at a discounted rate.

Why do you get a discount? This is primarily because the cost to build and operate solar is generally cheaper than alternative forms of energy, allowing greater financial benefits for subscribers of these programs.

Here’s a simple example. Let’s say:

• Your monthly utility bill = $120
• Your solar credits = $100

Step 1:
Your utility bill is reduced by your credits
$120 – $100 = $20 still owed to your utility

Step 2:
You pay for your solar credits at a discounted rate (example: 10%)
$100 × 90% = $90 owed to PowerMarket

The final monthly outcome:

• $20 (utility payment)
• $90 (solar subscription payment)

= $110 total

You save $10 that month compared to your original $120 bill.

The above model is referred to as dual billing. Why? Because you are paying two bills: one to your utility company for the energy not covered by solar and another to the company managing your subscription. It’s no different than going to two stores for your groceries to get the cheapest possible items, leading to a reduced grocery bill overall. The challenge: while you’re saving money, there’s the added inconvenience of an extra bill. That’s why dual billing is the traditional model that states implement in new markets.

A newer model, called net crediting or consolidated billing, allows just the savings to be applied to your utility bill, so you don’t need to worry about a separate invoice. Using the example from above, you would simply receive a $10 reduction on your utility bill, not the $100 reduction followed by a $90 payment.

Given that the net crediting model simplifies the process, reduces friction, and improves access to the program, many states are moving towards this billing method.

Why Your Credits Fluctuate
Customers are often surprised why the amount of dollars they save every month can vary. This is because a variety of factors affect how many credits are applied to your electric bill.

To start, solar production is seasonal. For example, sunnier summer months with longer days lead to more solar energy production, meaning your solar farm generates more credits, leading to more savings during this season.

Also, utilities typically report solar credits on a 1-2 month delay. As an example of that, if you were to receive a Powermarket notification in July, that would likely be for credits that were applied to your utility bill in March or April.

To help make this clear, PowerMarket centralizes all activity in your subscriber dashboard.

Within your dashboard, you can monitor your credits, payments, and cumulative savings over time. It includes month-by-month breakdowns, historical savings trends, downloadable reports, and visualizations that show how your community solar share is performing – including your environmental impact.

The Bigger Picture
Community solar makes clean energy accessible without requiring a solar panel installation, changing your utility provider, or any upfront investment. Subscribers benefit through guaranteed monthly savings on electricity, typically between 5-20% on your bill.

But the impact extends beyond just individual savings. Community solar also creates local clean energy jobs, reduces our reliance on fossil fuels, and creates a more resilient electricity grid.

Many states also intentionally design programs to expand access for low- and middle-income households through initiatives like New York’s ICSA program and Massachusetts’ SMART Program.

Community solar is made possible and valuable by good policies, and future policy growth is also driven by strong support for community solar. This is part of what makes PowerMarket special. As a leading community solar company, we are learning, establishing, and sharing best practices to help legislators craft new policy to keep expanding renewable energy.

The financial savings are meaningful — but they’re also part of something larger. Community solar is a model of sustainability that doesn’t require higher spending to participate and do good, and it doesn’t impose high barriers that exclude the people who could benefit most.

That’s why I’m so passionate about PowerMarket and excited about the work we’re doing every day.