‘Community solar’ projects would offer alternative for members who can’t install green-energy system at home
Golden Valley Electric Association is studying a plan that would allow its members to invest in the utility’s solar-energy farm and other facilities to reduce their monthly bills and support the co-op’s efforts to reduce use of fossil fuels. If approved, Golden Valley will begin applying next year for permits on what could be Alaska’s first community solar project.
Golden Valley has for years allowed members who install solar- or wind-power systems at their homes to reduce their monthly bills with credits they earn when they generate more electricity than they use. But many members aren’t able to take advantage of that program.
“Perhaps they don’t have a south-facing house, or a good roof. Or perhaps they’re renters,” says Tom DeLong, who chairs Golden Valley’s board of directors.
DeLong says that’s why GVEA is considering establishing a so-called community solar program that would allow those members to skip the upfront and ongoing costs of buying and maintaining a solar-energy system. Instead, they’d buy a solar panel or portion of a panel at the co-op’s solar farm in Fairbanks. The 3-acre facility on the city’s south side generates up to 563 kilowatts -- enough to power about 70 homes.
“The community solar model attempts to provide those benefits to those people (who) maybe can’t afford or do not want to invest in a standalone system,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
DeLong says a lot of Golden Valley members want to help the co-op transition from fossil fuels to renewable-sourced energy, like solar. And in response to their interest in community solar, the co-op’s board gave the GVEA Member Advisory Committee, or MAC, a list of objectives for the program.
“And one of them was to make this accessible to moderate- to low-income folks,” he said.
A member of a Fairbanks-based environmental advocacy organization agrees.
“We are excited about the opportunity to increase the equity and accessibility of renewable energy,” says Kenzley Defler, the Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition’s energy justice coordinator. She says her organization strongly supports the community solar proposal.
“It’s a cost-effective, clean source of energy generation, which helps reduce carbon emissions, helps in the transition away from fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas,” she said in an interview last week.
DeLong acknowledges that some Golden Valley members aren’t interested in solar energy, but he says all benefit from surplus electricity generated by solar. And he emphasized that community solar subscribers would cover the cost of the program. And they could take advantage of economies of scale made available by GVEA purchasing many solar panels at a time.
“In fact, we hope that there’s oversubscription and that more people want in on it,” he said. “And in that case, we could make the project bigger.
DeLong says the initial goal is to have enough subscribers to support a 500 kilowatt solar farm, enough to power about 70 homes. That investment would be paid back through member savings from their monthly power bill, according to Fairbanks-based energy analyst Phil Wight.
“The average savings for a consumer, if they invest in community solar, is 10 percent,” Wight said in an interview Wednesday. He says the federal Department of Energy has set a goal of boosting those savings to 20 percent of co-op members’ bills by 2025.
Wight says federal support for community solar projects should encourage Golden Valley’s board to move ahead on the program.
“This is an exciting moment, because the Department of Energy is so focused on this,” he said.
If Golden Valley adopts the community solar program, it could be the first in the state. Anchorage-based Chugach Electric, Alaska’s largest utility, proposed a community solar program five years ago, but state regulators rejected it in 2019 as unworkable. A Chugach spokesperson said Wednesday the utility is re-visiting the idea.
Wight says both initiatives are long overdue.
“We’ve had community solar in the United States since 2007,” he said. “What’s changed now is that it’s almost ubiquitous, and Alaska is just behind the curve. And we’ve got to catch up.”
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, community solar projects were located in 39 states and the District of Columbia as of December 2021. NREL says 22 states, including the District of Columbia, have policies that support community solar.
Those policies have helped utilities and nonprofit organizations establish and operate community solar projects, says Wight, who’s also an assistant professor of history at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He’s now working with two Anchorage-based nonprofits, the Alaska Center and Alaska Public Interest Research Group, to draft legislation that would help promote community solar projects in the state. He says the measure will be introduced in the coming legislative session.
DeLong says he expects Golden Valley staff to complete a review of the MAC task force findings by the middle of next year. And he says if it’s favorable and the board moves ahead on the program, GVEA will begin filing for tariffs with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska by the end of 2023.
