What is Sunscription Community Solar?
Sunscription connects you to a Community Solar Garden (also known as Community Solar Farm), allowing you to save money, support local renewable energy, and have more control over your power, without ever installing solar panels on your roof. Community Solar Gardens are large solar projects which use solar panels to make clean energy directly from the sun. Underneath the solar panels, we often plant native vegetation and flowers to attract pollinators, reduce runoff and build soil structure. Solar energy with Sunscription is growing Colorado’s renewable energy portfolio and helping transition to a clean energy future.
As a Colorado Community Solar Garden member, you support clean solar energy with no upfront cost and save alongside people in your community.
Why Community Solar Gardens for Colorado?
Colorado state officials created the Community Solar Program to lower Colorado's carbon emissions and encourage homeowners/renters to participate in clean energy. With local Solar Gardens and partnerships such as Energy Outreach Colorado and High Country Conservation Center, Sunscription is accelerating Colorado toward its clean energy goals.
What are Colorado’s Clean Energy Goals?
Colorado has ambitious clean energy goals, seeking to accomplish 100% clean electricity by 2040 with an interim plan of reducing greenhouse gas pollution 80% by 2030. With over 300 sunny days per year, Colorado has tremendous solar potential. Currently, Colorado runs on about 35% renewable electricity.
Colorado's success in solar energy can be attributed to the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). Renewable Portfolio Standards require utilities to generate or purchase a percentage of their electricity from renewable sources by a set date. Colorado voters established an early RPS in 2004, inspiring other clean energy programs nationwide. In addition to the RPS, the 2010 Colorado Community Solar Program allowed for the development of Community Solar projects to leverage Colorado's solar capacity through economies of scale.
Colorado has witnessed incredible growth in its solar industry thanks to these policies and programs. There are currently 2,671MW of solar installed, providing enough solar energy to power 515,688 homes. The solar industry has also created over 7,426 jobs in Colorado.
How Does Community Solar Work with My Xcel Energy Bill?
Community Solar works similarly to having solar panels on your roof, where your utility “buys back” clean energy as it goes onto the grid. Because you are a member of a Solar Garden, you likewise receive Solar Credits on your bill based on the energy created at the Solar Garden. To finance and maintain the solar project, the owner of the Solar Garden charges a reduced rate to members for the Solar Credits they receive, saving them money each month. Click the link to join a Solar Garden near you.
