Community Solar Could Serve More Than 53 Million U.S. Households, Researchers Say

While Community Solar is already making an impact (with Altus avoiding 265 million pounds of CO² emissions in 2024 alone), its potential is huge. So huge, in fact, that Community Solar could power tens of millions of households in the United States.

That stat comes from researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the research consultancy Clean Kilowatts, who published their findings in a recent report titled “Technical Potential and Meaningful Benefits of Community Solar in the United States.”

Researchers Katy Waechter, Eric O’Shaughnessy, Sudha Kannan, and Robin Burton say that they found that 42% of households and 44% of businesses are unable to install behind-the-meter solar — i.e. consumer-side solar power systems — and that Community Solar could be a “great option” for those who can’t install solar panels on their roofs because they don’t own their property, can’t afford solar, or don’t have roofs or electrical systems suited to solar.

With Community Solar programs, there’s no equipment to install. Instead, customers subscribe to or own a portion of the output of a nearby solar project and receive a solar credit from their utility, which generally lowers their electricity bills around 5% to 15%, the researchers say. (With Altus Power’s Community Solar, subscribers are guaranteed to receive solar savings of between 5% and 20%, depending on their location.)

And Community Solar could benefit a huge portion of the United States population. “Our technical potential estimation suggests that Community Solar could conceivably serve 53.2 million households and 311,750 businesses that cannot access behind-the-meter solar in the United States,” the researchers say in the NREL report.

For the sake of comparison, the U.S. Census reports there were about 127 million households in the United States as of 2023, so 53.2 million households is more than 40% of the total. The average number of persons per household was 2.54 at the time, so with that average, serving 53.2 million households could mean serving more than 135 million people.

The researchers do note that these are high-end estimates, but even “realistic projections for community solar deployed in the ensuing decade” yield impressive numbers. With those projections in mind, the researchers estimate that community solar could “reduce subscriber electricity costs by around $170 million–$500 million per year, serve 320,000–950,000 [low- to moderate-income] households, generate $80 million–$240 million per year in grid resiliency and service value, drive $30 million–$230 million per year in economic benefits into host communities, and support around 10,500 permanent jobs.”

Altus Power Community Solar has no upfront cost or fees, is cancellable at any time, and is available to renters and homeowners alike in Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and Maine, where the company currently operates Community Solar projects. These subscribers access the benefits of solar energy, helping their community go green while keeping green in their wallets.

See if you’re eligible and apply to Community Solar by heading to join.altuspower.com, and if you have any questions, reach out to Altus Power’s Customer Experience Team at hello@altuspower.com.