Community Solar Gardens
Join Community Solar Gardens!
Community Solar Gardens (CSGs) are one of the many ways to save money on your electric bill. CSGs make solar energy more affordable by building a large solar array on a sunny roof or open area, allowing each subscriber to lower their electricity costs by 10%-20%.
What makes Community Solar Gardens even more accessible is that homeowners, renters, businesses, and organizations can all subscribe! When you subscribe, you will sign up for a fixed percentage of the output of the community solar garden that is based on your past energy use. Most subscribers will sign up for a quantity of solar that is expected to produce 120% of your historic use - the maximum allowed under state law. This will provide the deepest financial savings, and get you as close as possible to zeroing out your electric bill. Join community solar gardens!
How does Community Solar work?
When you subscribe to a Community Solar Garden, you own a portion of the energy it produces. As an energy generator, Xcel Energy is required to compensate you for the energy generated by your subscription. This compensation comes in the form of a monthly bill credit, reducing your electricity costs.
To ensure Cooperative Energy Futures (CEF) can continue maintaining and expanding Community Solar Gardens, a small portion of the credit goes toward CEF, while the remaining credit is applied directly to your bill. By law, all subscribers must save money each month—making Community Solar Gardens a reliable way to cut costs while supporting clean energy!
Requirements
One-time $25 membership fee. By becoming a member you are able to participate in annual members’ meetings and run for and elect our Board of Directors, access members-only offerings like community solar subscriptions, affordable solar on low-income housing and on-site solar.
Household gross annual income (before taxes are taken out) is lower than 80% AMI, in between 80 and 150% AMI, or over 150% AMI. View table