Public power representatives invited to apply for community solar working group

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
March 13, 2021

Public power representatives and collaborators in need of expertise or a community of practice around community solar projects are being invited to apply for an expert-led municipal utility community solar working group. 

Guided by Department of Energy and National Renewable Energy staff expertise as part of the National Community Solar Partnership (NCSP), a selected group of representatives from the public power community will work in parallel to scope community solar projects for their jurisdictions. 

By the end of the nine- to ten-month working group, each participating utility will have developed a business case for an exploratory project or for a site-specific project.

Working session topics will include: 

• Defining community solar project goals and objectives for utilities and jurisdictions
• Market potential/customer appetite
• Program designs and subscription models 
• Identifying potential sites and calculating PV potential
• Project economics and financials
• Developing a project proforma
• Project construction, RFPs, timelines
• Customer acquisition, program implementation and marketing
• Documenting the project opportunity and finalizing the project proposal package

In order to get the most value out of the working group, participants will be asked to commit to spending approximately 3-5 hours per month preparing for and engaging in working sessions, taking advantage of networking opportunities and discussing community solar options and priorities with others in their respective organizations.

At a minimum, participants will be expected to:  

• Send at least one representative who is engaged with the effort to each working session. Meetings will be approximately 90 minutes in length and occur monthly through the end of 2021.
• Take an active role in discussions, having completed preparatory work assigned before each meeting (data-gathering tasks, brainstorming, understanding internal priorities, etc.)
• Take advantage of opportunities to network with peers and schedule 1:1 calls with subject matter experts between working sessions, as needed.

For those interested in applying for the working group, complete and interest form here. Interest forms must be submitted by March 19.