Community Solar Programs: Has Anyone Sold or Transferred Shares?

[scfr]

Has anyone purchased a share (or shares) in a community solar program that they have subsequently transferred or sold? How was the transfer/sale process? How hard was it to find a willing buyer? Do you think that you at least broke even financially by participating in the program?

Our public utility is launching a new community solar project. If we choose to buy in (I'm leaning towards it), we would be 72/73 years old when we hit the forecasted break-even point (sooner if utility rates rise faster than expected) and 84/85 years old at the end of the guaranteed project life, so odds are that at some point we would be looking to either sell or transfer our shares before the end of that guarantee period.

 

[Dash man]

Has anyone purchased a share (or shares) in a community solar program that they have subsequently transferred or sold? How was the transfer/sale process? How hard was it to find a willing buyer? Do you think that you at least broke even financially by participating in the program?



Our public utility is launching a new community solar project. If we choose to buy in (I'm leaning towards it), we would be 72/73 years old when we hit the forecasted break-even point (sooner if utility rates rise faster than expected) and 84/85 years old at the end of the guaranteed project life, so odds are that at some point we would be looking to either sell or transfer our shares before the end of that guarantee period.

FPL started something in Florida where you don’t buy shares, but can pay a little extra to support a solar project, then you get credits back from it. They said the first year we would pay on average $0.68/ month more for our 2kWh/month average use. We can drop out at anytime. It starts next month.

 

[ERD50]

I think an earlier post got gobbled up by internet gremlins...

I am interested in community solar, as I've said many times, solar on residential rooftops is (usually) stupid and counter-productive. It just can't meet the economy of scale, efficiency, and safety of a large commercial installation. Anyone in favor of solar power should not be promoting residential installations. Residential has so many negatives, you end up with less total energy developed and more $ spent. Going large scale means you get more fossil fuel offset for fewer $ (so more money can go to more solar, rinse-repeat).

I'll try again, but last time I looked into community solar, it was run by ComEd (I'm in the SW burbs of Chicago), and it was some weird, complex, indirect thing. I want something straightforward - I pay for an X% share of a solar farm, and I get X% of the money it earns selling its energy. Like investing in a building and collecting rent.

But I'm not finding anything like that.

-ERD50

 

[scfr]

Sign ups for our community solar program went live this morning at 7. I submitted our sign up form at 7:08 and will find out within 3 business days whether or not we are in, or if I was too slow and it was already sold out. There were different "buy-in" levels available, from 50 to 5,000 kwh. I selected 1,000 kwh. That's how much of an energy credit we'll receive every year. Our average monthly usage is 890, so essentially we're supporting this project by pre-paying for 1.12 months of annual electricity. We've looked in to rooftop solar before but decided it just didn't make sense for us, so was happy to see our utility offering this option. Because I have a preference for the numbers to make sense more-or-less, and was unable to even make a rough estimate of potential resale/transfer value, I was reluctant to commit at the 5,000 kwh level. Feeling like a bit of a pioneer, albeit a cautious one, I went with what felt right to me. Time will tell.