The First Step Towards Sustainability: Community Solar Rollouts

The $0 Investment, OpEx Energy Strategy that Billion Dollar Companies Use to Hedge Inflation

I was in a Zoom meeting with a 70+ billion-dollar company, using my half decade of experience to roadmap a sustainability strategy.

We were deep into the process with this client, and as a 2024 refresher- they wanted to wrap their head around utilizing community solar and if it was the right next move for them.

I laughed to myself as the meeting got sidetracked almost immediately- when it comes to large companies exploring the highest-use cases of ROI with commercial solar; it’s common for no stone to be left unturned.

My job is to streamline the strategy, take it one step at a time, and get these notoriously slow corporations to execute decisions without getting lost in the sauce.

“It seems you want to know community solar is the right next strategy for you, without limiting yourself with higher-leveraged commercial solar strategies,” I mirrored to the head guy.

At the start of the call, he was all over the place with ideas, but here I could see his physiology change as I was able to reflect back to him what he wanted to know: should they really enroll in community solar?

“Community solar is the most simple step towards sustainability and it’s the very first strategy we execute with our clients for a reason,” I proceeded.

My favorite part of community solar rollouts is that not only is it a powerful strategy for large consumers to realize lower electricity costs, hedge inflation, and even potentially tie in Green-E Recs for ESG reporting- but for Community Solar Authority; it’s our highest leveraged, leading strength in terms of delivery.

For the last half-decade, we’ve been working alongside large consumers of electricity to gain access to executing this first step and making meaningful progress towards a more resilient organization.

Inside our Ultimate Guide to Community Solar, we dive into our top-down approach to maximize savings & strategize from a portfolio level on which utility accounts to enroll, and where.

“Consider this proof of concept before we deploy it nationwide in your available markets.” I kept going.

“You want the OpEx reductions, you want to hedge inflation, you want the premium Green-E RECs, but most importantly- you want a good working relationship with the solar developers who can deliver beyond community solar. I’ll give you an example with another multi-billion dollar client we’re currently working with.”

This had struck a chord, and his head perked up.

“This is the same playbook we run for large consumers of electricity across the board. Another client using our Community Solar Fast-Pass? to run this play is a global company with thousands of commercial properties across the US. They’re thinking of this in the same light, (no pun intended) in terms of what the next few decades are going to look like. They’re solving for what can be easily executed now, without interfering & saving room for what comes down the road.”

When I was able to relate his positioning and reveal the path, which is what great guides do, he was able to answer his question- community solar is the right next step.

Now, in terms of delivery & how we account for ensuring there is room for additional commercial solar strategies & incentives- that’s our secret sauce.

This client has a portfolio of utility accounts in a single market for our initial rollout, and we have plenty of room in our pipeline to work our magic.

But- it reveals the power of community solar beyond just some savings & helping clean the energy grid:

It is a simple way to add an insane amount of goodwill into a relationship, and it just so happens that we have a proven process to execute over the last half-decade.

Interested in seeing if a community solar rollout is the right next move for your organization?

Reach out to us at communitysolarauthority.com today.

Thanks for reading! I appreciate you tuning in and catching up with CSA as we build in public. Hope you have an amazing week! Questions? Email me: [email protected]