How Does Community Solar Billing Work?
- Electricity produced by the community solar farm is delivered to the local electric grid.
- You earn credits for the electricity generated on your behalf.
- Your energy credits reduce your monthly electric bill.
- You then pay your solar farm for these credits at a discount off of your utility’s standard offer rate for electricity.
Dive deeper into Community Solar:
Types of billing
Two ways to pay for solar
After you sign up for community solar, and your solar farm starts producing electricity, you will pay your solar farm for the credits applied to your electric bill. This payment is usually called a subscription charge. The way you pay this subscription charge is different depending on the program you sign up for.
Remember: the cost of your credits always reflects a discount compared to what you would have paid for the same amount of power using the standard offer.
Dual Billing (most common)
With dual-billing, your electric bill is reduced by the full value of your community solar credit. Then, you receive a separate invoice from your community solar company for your subscription charge, which is the value of your credit minus your discount/savings rate. You pay two bills – one to your electric company, and one to your community solar company – but save.
Consolidated Billing
In some cases, your community solar company will include your utility charges in their bill, so you don’t need to pay your electric company directly. Instead of paying your utility, you pay your community solar provider for your electric charges and discounted subscription charge.
Banking Credits
Billing Changes with the Seasons
Solar generation is highest in the summertime, so you will likely receive significantly more community solar credits between June and September than you will in November through March. If the generation from your portion of the solar farm in a month is higher than what you used, you bank those credits for months when solar generation isn’t as high.
Some programs and projects will only charge you up to what you use that month, and will only charge you for banked credits when you use them. Other projects will charge you for all the credits generated, and you just use up your bank having already paid for the credits. Depending on your utility, you might be able to see your credit bank right on your electric bill.
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about credits
You will have the option of receiving one bill or two every month. With the one-bill option, you will be billed automatically each month by your solar company. They take care of paying your utility bill. It’s that simple. With the two-bill option, you will be billed automatically each month from your solar company for your share of the solar electricity produced. You will also receive a separate bill from your utility company minus the solar credits you receive from the solar company each month.
Your subscription provides you with a percentage of the total output of the solar farm.
The credits from your solar farm allotment are automatically applied to your monthly utility bill, reducing the total amount due. Bill credits offset all electricity costs: supply and delivery and taxes.
If you use more electricity than was generated on your behalf, the utility will invoice you for the difference. Use less electricity than your allotment generated and you will not owe the utility any money that month. Any remaining credits will be banked for future use.
In New England, our seasons have an impact on solar energy production. In the summer months, with longer and sunnier days, solar farms produce more electricity. In the winter, solar farms tend to produce less. Over the course of a year, you can expect your share of the solar farm to produce roughly the amount of electricity you use.
Unused credits will be banked in your account and automatically applied to months where you’ve used more electricity than was generated on your behalf.
Have more questions?
Our friendly customer relations team is here to talk with you in person about community solar and what it means for you.