Members can purchase locally generated, renewable energy

A new pro­gram from York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive will soon allow mem­bers to invest in solar ener­gy with­out actu­al­ly installing pan­els on their home.

Under the coop­er­a­tive’s Com­mu­ni­ty Solar pro­gram, avail­able in June, YEC mem­bers can sign up to pur­chase pow­er that will be gen­er­at­ed at a 50-kilo­watt (kW) solar farm in Rock Hill locat­ed near the Gal­le­ria Mall.

YEC mem­bers can sign up now to pur­chase some of the solar far­m’s renew­able ener­gy out­put. Pric­ing is:

• Up-front charge of $100 per kW unit
• Month­ly charge of $12 per kW unit
• Month­ly cred­it of 10 cents per kilo­watt-hour (kWh)
• One-time admin­is­tra­tive fee of $30

Don­na Des­saint, YEC mem­ber ser­vices rep­re­sen­ta­tive and the co-op’s point per­son for its renew­able-ener­gy offer­ings, says the Com­mu­ni­ty Solar pro­gram offers an afford­able, low-risk way to ben­e­fit from solar ener­gy with­out the has­sles often involved in roof-top solar instal­la­tions.

“Par­tic­i­pat­ing mem­bers avoid design­ing, per­mit­ting, installing, main­tain­ing and insur­ing their own pho­to­volta­ic solar array,” Des­saint notes.

Mem­bers ben­e­fit, she adds, based on how much solar pow­er they buy.

“Their Com­mu­ni­ty Solar pow­er pur­chas­es would off­set part of their month­ly bill. They would get a cred­it on their bill, based on the por­tion of own­er­ship they have in the solar farm.”

York Elec­tric is offer­ing the pro­gram in response to mem­ber inter­est, Des­saint says. While the coop­er­a­tive also assists mem­bers who want roof-top solar, con­sumer research con­duct­ed by South Car­oli­na’s elec­tric co-ops shows much stronger inter­est in Com­mu­ni­ty Solar, she says.

“Many peo­ple who expressed inter­est in solar pow­er rec­og­nize the ben­e­fits of the Com­mu­ni­ty Solar approach,” she says. “Research in South Car­oli­na has shown that the cost per kilo­watt for Com­mu­ni­ty Solar is rough­ly half that of roof-top solar. You get a bet­ter return on your invest­ment by invest­ing in Com­mu­ni­ty Solar.”

Com­mu­ni­ty Solar pro­grams are being intro­duced by York Elec­tric and oth­er coop­er­a­tives around South Car­oli­na. The state’s 20, con­sumer-owned, inde­pen­dent co-ops have col­lab­o­rat­ed through Cen­tral Elec­tric Pow­er Coop­er­a­tive, their joint­ly owned pow­er sup­ply aggre­ga­tor, to design solar pro­grams for S.C. co-op mem­bers.

SIGN THEM UP!

These Fort Mill res­i­dents are eager for Com­mu­ni­ty Solar

Hitesh Patel and Cliff Toole live in dif­fer­ent parts of YEC’s ser­vice area but face a sim­i­lar chal­lenge: They both want­ed to add solar pan­els to their homes but just could­n’t make it work.

In Fort Mil­l’s Sut­ton Place neigh­bor­hood, Patel ran into neigh­bor­hood restric­tions. “For my house, I was told I can­not install any­thing on the roof,” he says.

A YEC mem­ber for about eight years, Patel has been in touch with the co-op since YEC start­ed gaug­ing mem­ber inter­est in solar options in 2014. He’s pleased that YEC is offer­ing Com­mu­ni­ty Solar.

“What I liked about it is it’s a solar farm. It’s main­tained. You don’t have to wor­ry about the main­te­nance, or call­ing people–if some­thing’s bro­ken, they’ll take care of it. And you get reim­bursed [for the solar pow­er you pur­chase] on your bill.”

Over in Spring­field area of Fort Mill, Cliff Toole had looked into roof-top solar, too. “My house loca­tion is not well-sit­u­at­ed to install pan­els,” he says.

Trees would block the sun­light, Toole says, and the pitch of his roof was­n’t right. Plus, he notes, “The house was­n’t built at the cor­rect angle to the sun.”

A co-op mem­ber since 2009, Toole says the Com­mu­ni­ty Solar pan­el helps him achieve a goal to cut back on his per­son­al con­tri­bu­tion to the green­house gas­es blamed for glob­al warm­ing. “For me per­son­al­ly, it’s always about reduc­ing my [car­bon diox­ide] foot­print,” he says.

Patel is like­wise pleased to have an easy way to invest in solar pow­er. “It’s clean ener­gy,” he says. “You can help with the cause for that.”

[PDF] Community Solar Application Terms

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[PDF] YEC Community Solar FAQ

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