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Community Solar

Local power within your reach

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New Project coming in 2023

Members buy shares and get bill credits for locally produced power.

Everyone Can Go Solar!

Community Solar offers an affordable and easy way to grow our own power! Members benefit from monthly bill credits and the whole Co-op benefits from a first step towards a local source for emergency back-up power.

Why Community Solar?

Community Solar is the first step toward local solutions to expensive mainland power trends.  It also offers increased redundancy, and the capability to re-route power for emergency services.

Check out the Decatur Project we finished in 2018!

The Best Part: Save Money!

The solar units you purchase offset a portion of your electric bill. Experience a return on investment while also switching a portion of your electricity usage to clean, local solar power.

Calculate your energy savings

This slider works for the Decatur Project we finished in 2018! Stay tuned for details on the San Juan Island Community Solar!

$
160
Investment
=
160
watts*
0.74
%
Offset
$
23.14
Annual Savings
1
1
137
MOVE THE SLIDER to select how many units of the project you are interested in.
* 75 watts is expected to produce 82 kWh. The kWh offset compares your investment to your actual kWh usage last year (find it in SmartHub) or defaults to the residential average usage of 12,000 kWh/year. Return on investment is estimated at 10.9 years depending on actual array production. Annual savings is based on $0.10/kWh from OPALCO + $0.16/kWh in WA State Incentives while supplies last (estimated 5 years)

Enter your actual annual usage (from SmartHub):
(12,000 kWh/year is the average usage of OPALCO members.)

How does Community Solar work?

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Buy Community Solar shares

Interested members can buy into the Community Solar array based on their budget and interest.

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Get access to solar energy

The sun shines and the solar array produces electricity.

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Save on your bill

The energy credits are allocated based on how many shares you purchase and are added to your power bill.

Interested in taking part in Community Solar?

We aren’t currently taking applications for our next project. Email solar@opalco.com to join our list of people interested in community solar projects.

FAQs

Frequently asked questions for Community Solar

Individual member investors. Our 2017 Community Solar survey results clearly demonstrated that members prefer the project is funded by those who participate, and not through rates. The Decatur Island Community Solar Project was paid for 100% by member investors.

Contact us! Email us at solar@opalco.com with your contact information so we can keep you up to date on the project. We are collecting names and email addresses of members who are interested in purchasing Solar Units and will use that list to keep you updated as the next project takes shape.

The economics of the 2021 project have not been finalized. The Decatur Community Solar project cost was $150/unit. Stay tuned for more information as the project progresses.

See the full of list of Community Solar FAQs.