Community Solar Needs a Bigger Boat

By Elisa Wood, Energy Changemakers

it's a good time for community solar — at least at the moment. The US market has tripled in size since 2020, according to a new report by Wood Mackenzie and the Coalition for Community Solar Access.

However, only a limited number of states have pro-community solar policies, and their markets are going to get saturated. The report forecasts the market will grow 5% annually through 2026 and then contract by 11% through 2029.

Action by state lawmakers could shift the forecast into a bull market, especially if Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and four other potential markets adopt pro-community solar policies, according to the report.

Unfortunately, utilities tend to oppose community solar and they are often powerful voices in state legislatures.

So the industry has a fight on its hands. The good news is that it's got strong champions on its side, among them Nate Owen, CEO of Ampion, who I interviewed in the first Energy Changemakers Podcast, released last week.

"We're constantly having to bang down doors in areas that are, you know, not necessarily open to competition and/or a change in policy. So it's a long battle that we fight," Owen says.

Owen describes community solar as "a little rowboat bumping up against an aircraft carrier."

"We're trying to make the aircraft carrier take a bit of a perpendicular turn...or a 10 or 20-degree turn. We need a lot of rowboat," he says.

For more, listen to the interview, What's Next for Community Solar?

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