Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 10, 90–101 (2015)

The interaction between electricity customers and utilities is being shaken by the increasing capacity of roof-top photovoltaic installations. Consumers that secure their power off-grid circumvent the charges and unit costs imposed by utilities, but they also stop contributing towards the maintenance of the grid infrastructure. Community solar projects — installations paid for and benefitting multiple community members or stakeholders — are an attractive alternative to residential installation; when sponsored by utilities, they allow consumers access to solar electricity they otherwise couldn't afford and act as a revenue stream for the utility provider. Now, Varun Rai and colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin have analysed the way that policy, regulatory and market factors influence the take-up by utility companies of community solar in the US to understand its potential scope.

The researchers carried out a series of interviews and surveys to explore the motivations behind the utilities for community solar deployment and the types of business model and strategies they employed. They also compiled a database of community solar programmes and examined residential solar capacity in regions with and without community solar availability. They found that utility adoption is driven predominantly by consumer demand for renewable energy and by policy and regulatory compliance. At the same time, utilities find that operating community solar projects allows them to retain their customer base while providing a stable model for distributed energy provision.