Last fall the Michigan Legislature took some giant steps to do its part to resolve the climate crisis. Despite the progress made, a number of outstanding issues remain. One concept that would help address many of those challenges is community solar. Sierra Club supports legislation to facilitate the development of more community solar facilities in Michigan and urges readers to contact their legislators to support these bills. Senate Bills 152-153 and House Bills 4464-4465 aim to promote community solar projects owned by local entities by removing unnecessary restrictions, making it easier for communities to access clean and affordable solar energy.
“Community solar is a great way for an entire community to have access to solar energy. It’s sort of like a solar power plant, which centralizes the sourcing of solar energy. It doesn’t require roof panels, and it encourages sustainability on a larger scale,” according to Bailey Benningfield and Corinne Tynan in Forbes Home.
So how does community solar work? Individuals lease or buy solar panels in a community solar facility, and the electricity produced by their panels is metered and deducted from their utility bill. This offers an opportunity for low-income persons, apartment dwellers and others unable to benefit from solar arrays on their homes to become more energy independent and save money. These projects can be built with battery backup so that they can cut themselves off from the grid and provide electricity to their subscribers in times of power outages, protecting sensitive households from the potentially dangerous loss of power.
Community solar addresses barriers like high initial costs, renters who don’t own their homes, shaded rooftops and financing issues, allowing more residents to benefit from solar power by purchasing shares or subscribing to local solar arrays. This approach can help reduce Michigan's high energy costs and improve service quality while providing health, environmental and financial benefits to communities. The U.S. Department of Energy has developed best practices for community solar that are designed to provide additional benefits to communities and the individuals participating in these projects.
In Michigan, a handful of community solar projects have been developed by municipal utilities and communities. The 300-panel East Lansing Solar Park generates electricity for the Lansing Board of Water and Light, resulting from 144 residential and commercial customers, including the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, purchasing panels. Municipal utilities and cooperatives are not regulated through the Michigan Public Service Commission, so the proposed legislation does not cover them, but some have moved ahead with community solar because of demand.
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has a community solar project that is described as “community solar done right”, according to Inside Climate News. It is located in and owned by the village of L’Anse, which sits on the Keweenaw Bay of Lake Superior. The village includes a portion of Keweenaw Bay Indian Reservation. 250 of the 500 panels are reserved for low to moderate income households. The developers worked with the community right from the start of the planning process to bring this into being.
Community solar also has the potential to help address other issues that are affecting the transition to clean energy. Community solar will help resolve issues of electric transmission by providing smaller electricity producing facilities locally, reducing the need for heavy transmission lines. Right now, there are more gigawatts (GW) of solar energy waiting to get onto the electrical grid than there is actual solar energy currently on the grid. The transition off fossil fuels and onto electric power for electric vehicles, home heating and industrial demands is increasing the need for more clean energy generation, but expansion of these major transmission lines is being held up by gridlock at our nation’s capital.
Electrical production at the local level will also make our electric supply more resilient to future storms.
We all need to make the transition to clean energy. This is not a zero-sum game. Either we all make the clean energy transition soon, or we will all lose. The proposed community solar laws currently in the Michigan Legislature will help Michigan resolve many of the issues above and help increase Michigan’s role as a clean energy leader.
Your help is needed to make the transition. Contact your Michigan legislator through this link and ask them to support the Community Solar bills. Hearings on the legislation have begun in the legislature, so taking action on this issue is urgent.
If you have any questions or comments, please direct them to Mike Buza at theoriginalzuba@yahoo.com.