I recently participated in one of the Twitter #SolarChat events that @EcoOutfitters organizes. It was a real blast — fun and informative. The general focus was community solar gardens, but that was of course linked to many other solar issues. Numerous useful resources about community solar gardens and solar financing were shared. Below are some of the key comments and resources I gathered from the hour-long solar chat (I actually spent about 2 hours scrolling through all the tweets and replying where I could be of special use.)
Community Solar
To start with, several people intimately involved with the community solar model shared some useful resources:
#solarchat a ton of information on community solar at the Solar Gardener Training http://t.co/3nGQGmlzb8
— Joy Hughes (@SolarGardens) July 17, 2013
community solar information at http://t.co/Hq9PG184uy #solarchat
— Joy Hughes (@SolarGardens) July 17, 2013
MT This is from #Sunshot at #DOE@ecooutfitters: A2 Here's a guide to Community Shared Solar http://t.co/M2qUi0Qkch #SolarChat
— GlennaWiseman (@GlennaWiseman) July 17, 2013
Our @SolarOutreach partner @IRECUSA has an updated "Model Rules" guide for Community Shared Solar: http://t.co/iqd1HCpfYd #solarchat
— The Solar Foundation (@solarfound) July 17, 2013
Details on various ownership and financing models were also shared:
A6 This page features stories of different ownership and financing models for #CommunitySolar projects http://t.co/ZX8ssirlpb #SolarChat
— CommunityPowerReport (@thecpreport) July 17, 2013
Naturally, you can’t bring up financing models these days without bringing up crowdfunding. Some participants asked if Kickstarter had even been used for crowdfunding community solar. Since I’ve covered some such crowdfunding projects, I chimed in:
@MercurySolar RE-volv got kickstarted through Kickstarter http://t.co/9tmeFqqtZI good success: http://t.co/YOoZagf6XM
— Zachary Shahan (@zshahan3) July 17, 2013
@MercurySolar and some kids in #NC http://t.co/DBmd48Yn2i #SolarChat
— Zachary Shahan (@zshahan3) July 17, 2013
For a more specific look at the differences between Colorado’s and Minnesota’s community solar policies, MN Renewable Energy shared this report:
A5 Sorry our link was broke, CO vs MN CS Policy study http://t.co/UgG2A6QzLz Solar Gardens N.pdf Yes? #solarchat
— MN Renewable Energy (@mnrenewables) July 17, 2013
Notably, when it comes to crowdfunding solar power, the Rocky Mountain Institute pointed out the important fact that there’s safety in numbers.
Safety in Numbers: Just How Risky Are Crowdsourced Investments in Renewables?http://t.co/XwGZB1g2HC #solarchat
— Rocky Mountain Inst (@RockyMtnInst) May 23, 2013
One key benefit of community solar to which I hadn’t really given much thought was that this model often makes going solar very easy. Frankly, I thought going solar was pretty easy anyway, but I guess that extra bit of ease really can make a difference for many people.
A7 #solarchat research shows that one of the main reasons people subscribe to community solar is that its easy to get started
— Joy Hughes (@SolarGardens) July 17, 2013
Related to that, making community solar options as simple as possible was focused on by some people as an important best practice.
A3: Customers understand 'utility bill' model. W/ utility lead, could create easy to understand payment 'add-on' #solarchat
— Milwaukee Shines (@MilwaukeeShines) July 17, 2013
This also seems to be something that UK renewable energy utility Ecotricity has discovered.
@EcoOutfitters @VTSolar yes, simplicity is a key. seems to be what @Ecotricity has found: #SolarChat http://t.co/gHQdLPiZeT
— Zachary Shahan (@zshahan3) July 17, 2013
Another point that I found particularly noteworthy was that schools and nonprofits bring positive associations to solar — as such, a great goal is to get more of these community leaders to go solar.
A7 A high profile non-profit or school project would provide good press that educates too. Make them ask for more! #solarchat
— SolarDock (@solardock) July 17, 2013
Of course, solar brings many benefits to consumers, and community solar especially so. We need to make this more well known. Obviously, I think that’s important — that’s what I’m in the business of doing!
A5 Key to making solar community work is delivering the benefits of the solar production to the customers #SolarChat
— Raina Greenfest (@SolarRaina) July 17, 2013
SolarRosana was also great to point out that Vote Solar is a great resource that can help us to support community solar and get it going in our communities.
A5 Check out @votesolar to see how you can help support community solar policies. #SolarChat http://t.co/eaPFy88AeU
— Rosana Francescato (@SolarRosana) July 17, 2013
SolarRosana and The Community Power Report also shared resources focused on sharing community solar examples from around the world.
A4 Check out Greg Pahl’s book Power from the People for great examples of community power projects. #SolarChat http://t.co/uvekw0PzA3
— Rosana Francescato (@SolarRosana) July 17, 2013
A4 Definitely! You can check out our website http://t.co/tM3piO2wxh for examples of such projects from around the world! #SolarChat
— CommunityPowerReport (@thecpreport) July 17, 2013
Of course, one of the biggest keys to advancing community solar is simply getting more community solar legislation put into place.
A2 Need more solar gardens policies, bills like SB 43 in CA (http://t.co/QEoMhOUbKB) #SolarChat
— Rosana Francescato (@SolarRosana) July 17, 2013
@SolarOutreach has great resources on the role local govs can play in community shared solar projects: http://t.co/urwrAtIhV1 #solarchat
— The Solar Foundation (@solarfound) July 17, 2013
Other Solar Topics
Of course, several other solar topics also came up that are worth highlighting.
The point was made by a few people that we need to educate people about the many advantages of solar and the low price of solar today.
Ed Reid noted that we need to be sure to us jargon-free language when doing so.
A7: Explain community solar with jargon-free language #SolarChat
— Ed Reid (@EdReid) July 17, 2013
Others noted that we needed more solar advertising, with which I wholeheartedly agree, as I’ve written before.
Another point I made here is that we need to help people understand that the cost of solar has changed dramatically (dropped off a cliff) within a very short timeframe.
EV–Solar Symbiosis
I don’t recall how it came up, but I also pointed out the huge symbiosis between electric vehicles and solar power. Clearly, a lot of people have caught on to this, but we need even more people to understand the strong positives of going solar and “going electric” at the same time.
Renewables Symbiosis
Aside from the EV–solar symbiosis, the important symbiosis between wind and solar power was also noted.
A4: You've all seen this chart of #renewables working together over the course of a day, right? http://t.co/rz7gIc9Sg1 #solarchat
— USC Solar Decathlon (@USCSolar13) July 17, 2013
Efficiency 2nd
An interesting question was posed regarding which should be pursued first — greater consumer efficiency or solar power. A very interesting point was made. It’s hard to get people to think about energy efficiency, but if you get them to go solar, they start to delve into this topic on their own — they start to pay close attention to their energy use.
A4 Energy efficiency is more logical first, but most I find go solar and new found awareness changes everything #solarchat
— Aus (@astn808) July 17, 2013
Efficiency improvements and solar make a natural combo, but it seems the best way to get people to get excited about efficiency is to get them to go solar.
Utilities
How could a solar discussion come up without utilities coming up? It’s impossible these days.
Kendra Hubbard was keen to note that community solar undercuts the popular utility “unfairness” argument.
Yep RT @RunOnSun: A7: Community solar undercuts utility "unfairness" argument against #solar since all can participate #solarchat
— Kendra Hubbard (@kendra_hubbard) July 17, 2013
SolarRosana was also keen to note that the tremendous benefits of distributed generation need to be taken into account and valued.
A3 Distributed power generation could benefit utilities esp if combined with distributed storage. #SolarChat
— Rosana Francescato (@SolarRosana) July 17, 2013
Depressing US Southeast
One notable statistic I wanted to save was regarding the US Southeast (which includes my home state of Florida):
@solarrosana 45% of US pop lives in the Southeast & we have the second greatest capacity for #solar but we are last for installs #solarchat
— Beth Bond (@BethSEGreen) July 17, 2013
Thanks for that, Beth… I guess.
