I Live in a Townhome — Do I Qualify for Community Solar?

You may have heard the phrase “solar without the panels,” but what does that even mean? How is that possible? Well, when you sign up for Community Solar, there’s no equipment to install — and no upfront fees, for that matter — which makes this clean energy program a viable solution for owners of townhomes, apartments, and condo owners who don’t own a building or don’t have a suitable roof on which to build residential solar panels.

So how do you get to enjoy the benefits of solar without panels? Consider it a case of “out of sight, out of mind.”

When you sign up for Community Solar, Altus Power connects you to a solar project nearby. That solar project could be a ground-mounted array nearby, like Altus Power’s 5-megawatt solar farm in Kapolei, Hawaii, which is celebrating its one-year “solarversary.” It could be a solar array atop a parking lot canopy, like our 2.7-megawatt array at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s campus in Purchase, New York. It could even be an array of panels on another building’s rooftop, like our community solar project on the roof of a self-storage facility in the Bronx, New York.

The point is, the panels are somewhere else, not above your head. You won’t need to install them, and won’t need to maintain them.

Therefore, Community Solar is good news for many of the U.S. households unable to install residential solar panels on their rooftops. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that 81% of U.S. residential buildings have enough rooftop space for a 1.5-kilowatt photovoltaic system, but only 51% of U.S. households can actually install such a system, because of factors like ownership, number of stories, and roof suitability. Meanwhile, 77% of U.S. households are likely ineligible for rooftop solar because of credit issues, roof shading, or ownership status, Greentech Media reports.

Altus Power’s solar projects supply their local electricity grid with clean power, easing the strain on utilities and reducing their community’s reliance on energy from fossil fuels. As a Community Solar subscriber, you’ll sign up for a share of a solar project’s output, and utilities will give you solar credits in the form of deductions on your utility bills. You’ll pay Altus for these credits at discount between 5-20%, depending on where you live, and you can cancel any time.

If you’re ready to sign up for Community Solar, go to join.altuspower.com to check your eligibility and begin the application. If you have any questions or want to know more, please feel free to reach out to us at hello@altuspower.com.