Kiwi Energy in the US has joined forces with Ampion to offer community solar to New York customers that reside within the latter’s service areas.
Qualifying Kiwi Energy customers will be offered the option to subscribe to a solar farm and receive a discounted credit on their electricity bills.
For many households and businesses rooftop or residential solar is not a viable option, simply because they rent, live in multi-tenant buildings or have roofs that are unable to host a solar system.
A 2008 study completed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found only 22% to 27% of residential rooftop area is suitable for hosting an on-site photovoltaic system after adjusting for structural, shading or ownership issues.
Thanks to a new programme created by the state of New York, community solar expands everyone’s access to solar energy without having to install panels on their roofs.
Based on each household’s annual electricity usage, Ampion will assign a share of a solar farm’s total production.
The solar farm will produce electricity on a customer’s behalf and deliver it to the grid. Each subscriber will then receive dollar credits for the amount of electricity produced by “their share” of the solar farm.
They will continue to receive a monthly bill from their utility company with their credits applied.
Ampion will send an invoice for 90% of the value of the credits that were applied to the utility bill.
Kiwi Energy retail operations president Richard Booth said: “We are looking forward to partnering with Ampion to be able to provide our New York customers access to solar energy who may have not previously had the option of going solar.
“Solar generation offsets more than 73 million metric tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. Community solar provides a convenient, efficient, and cost-effective way for people to reduce their environmental impact.”