Walk through most communities these days and you’ll see more and more solar panels on buildings, converting sunlight directly into electricity via photovoltaic cells.
Solar energy is renewable and reduces your home’s carbon emissions. It can help offset your energy costs and be a hedge against rising electricity prices.
There are even SolarHomes rebates from Efficiency Nova Scotia to help make this clean electricity more affordable to install. Solar energy makes sense and cents.
But what if the roof of your house can’t support solar panels? Maybe your property doesn’t get enough sunlight? Maybe the initial setup costs, even with rebates, are too high? Or are you a renter and the roof is not yours to add panels to?
Your part of the sun
Community solar could be the light at the end of your energy bill, adding renewable energy to your electricity mix.
A community solar “garden” is a centrally located and operated array of solar panels where energy is widely distributed to residents, some of whom may not live near the panels.
Also called shared solar, community solar is a way for multiple subscribers to purchase a share of a solar project and receive credit on their electric bill for their share of the energy produced.
The Nova Scotia government has announced a community solar program. But how is it different from the solar panels you already see on homes?
A solar garden requires an area large enough to install numerous panels: it could be on the rooftop of an industrial or institutional building, or on a plot of land with ground-mounted panels. (Installing in-ground solar gardens requires careful land use considerations, including agricultural needs.)
But whether on the roof or on the ground, shared solar energy is a way for more people to virtually access clean energy from the sun.
A different harvest
Like any farm, there are different ways to own and operate your solar installation. It could be owned by a utility, where an entity like Nova Scotia Power owns the solar garden but distributes the benefits to homeowners or neighborhoods.
Alternatively, it could be community-owned, where a municipality, First Nation, non-profit organization, university, college, business or community organization pays for and operates the solar garden.
Or it could be third-party ownership, where a company or cooperative owns and operates the solar panel.
There are also different ways to distribute the collected energy. Residents could rent one or more panels from the complex and reap the benefits of the energy they produce. There could be many subscribers to a power purchase agreement, in which a predetermined rate is paid for the power produced by the solar panel. And then there is the absolute ownership of the panel, when someone purchases a panel within the solar garden; They obtain the energy produced by their panels, but the entire assembly remains the property of a single body.
Bright days for Nova Scotia solar
The Province of Nova Scotia has announced a new Community Solar Program aimed at helping non-profit organizations, municipalities, First Nations and businesses install solar gardens. They would then sell this renewable electricity to subscribers who cannot (for any of the reasons listed above) install solar panels where they live.
The program will also contribute to the province’s climate goals. Nova Scotia plans to reach 80 per cent renewable energy and move away from coal by 2030; However, our grid still includes about 60 percent of the energy generated by burning fossil fuels, primarily coal.
“Not everyone has the ability to install their own solar panels,” Tory Rushton, Minister of Natural Resources and Renewable Energy, said of the program’s launch. “This creates the opportunity to purchase solar energy from a community provider.”
The new Community Solar Program panels are expected to be operational by spring 2026, at which time people will be able to subscribe to them at a slightly lower energy rate.
Participants will be able to decide how much of their electricity consumption comes from solar energy, choosing to offset part of their electricity consumption or all of it. In accordance with the announced guidelines for the program, participants will be able to increase, decrease or cancel their subscription at any time, and there is no penalty for changing subscription.
The province plans to invest just over $5 million over the next year to help with the capital costs of building community solar gardens. Each solar garden can produce up to 10 megawatts of energy; One megawatt of solar energy can power about 130 homes for a year.
Subscribers will earn a solar energy credit of $0.02 per kilowatt-hour on their bill for energy generated by their subscription.
“We are delighted to see the launch of the Community Solar Program,” said David Brushett, president of Solar Nova Scotia, a volunteer-run non-profit organization working to support a strong local solar industry and more renewable energy.
Brushett is confident this new program will help grow the solar industry in the province.
“It will also contribute to the ambitious shared goal of moving away from coal-based electricity in Nova Scotia by 2030.”
This story is shared by the Climate Story Network, an initiative of Climate Focus, a nonprofit organization dedicated to covering stories about community climate solutions.