A Subscribers Experience of Community Solar

Blog post written by 2023 Energy Intern, Vida Sulureh

As an intern at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), I recently had the opportunity to interview Frances Stewart, a loyal subscriber of Community Solar. She was prompted to share her experience after seeing the opportunity online. Community Solar provides an installation of solar power for homeowners, businesses, and renters. Subscribers share solar facilities that are local, and they receive credit on their electricity bills for their share of produced power.

Frances first subscribed to Neighborhood Sun pre pandemic, October 2019. Her core reason for doing so was her excessive amount of trees. She was really enthusiastic to support such a trustworthy and local provider, often urging others to subscribe as well. Subscribers would frequently meet in Willow Street Yoga Center, in Takoma Park. Frances noted that Neighborhood Sun members are very active towards their environment, and easy to talk to.

As a member herself, Frances usually checks the website/ blogs for specific information on what’s open, and where they’re expanding. She is also extremely active in her community, being involved with the Ellis Climate organization, and the Pilot Project, as well as legislative work since 2018. 

One thing she would change about Community Solar is the billing process. For the first three months of the year, Pepco unfortunately had low income users pay with their debit or credit card, and users couldn’t use energy for it. She believes that consolidated billing would be a much smoother, inclusive process for users. In Maryland, knowing where exactly the power is coming from, as well as building up solar are other important causes to Frances. 

It was a pleasure getting insight from a subscriber and it is very important to continue having insightful conversations to promote productivity and success when in regards to our environment.