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Originally Posted by villagetinker
Here is an off the wall idea, the CDD could offer some vacant land for the installation of ground based solar panels, and then CDD residents could purchase a piece of this installation to get the benefits of the solar installation. This would be basically a neighborhood solar installation. Also, there should be some savings based on the scale of the project. Note sure exactly how the sale of the electricity would be credited to the people that bought into the project.
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What you described are referred to as solar farms and are common up north. The basics of how they work (the one I considered anyway) are as follows. A group of homeowners contractually agree to purchase power from the farm for a fixed term (let’s say 25 years) at a fixed rate. The fixed rate is set at approximately the current rate per kilowatt hour for electricity in that region. The homeowners purchase a fixed monthly amount of power calibrated to approximately 80% of their average monthly usage. Each homeowner has to pass certain credit underwriting criteria to sign up. Once enough homeowners sign up to meet the farm’s capacity, the farm’s developer finances the project using the pool of homeowners credit approved contractual obligations as collateral. The farms developer peels off their cut and typically also is affiliated with the installation company so gets that business as well . The farms power is actually purchased by the electric distribution company at a fixed cost for the life of the farm and is part of their green/sustainable energy sourced portfolio as mandated by regulators in that region. Homeowners get about 80% of their electric power at an inflation proof fixed rate for the life of the farm and pay current market rate for the balance of electricity used. Homeowners also get the benefit of feeling they are helping the environment without any up front investment or having panels on their property, if that floats their boat. The downside for homeowners is that they are locked into paying for the power regardless of whether they use it, or if they sell their home. Those were deal breakers for us. When we are at our Villages home (which hopefully will be at least half the year), we obviously don’t use much power. When we eventually downsize and sell our home, it’s our responsibility to find someone to assume our contractual obligation for the remaining life of the farm, and that party would have to pass the credit underwriting criteria of the institution that financed the farm. There are certainly lots of fine details I didn’t go over, buts that’s the basics.