Solar Breakthrough Could Be on the Way for Renters

When President Obama announced a new initiative this week to expand access to solar energy for millions of low- and moderate-income Americans, he took the first step in addressing a major hurdle in the continued expansion of renewable energy:  the estimated 50 to 80 percent of households and businesses that can't install panels because they rent, or live in multi-unit buildings with little roof access.

"These people are a major, untapped part of the market for solar," said Tim Braun, a spokesman for the Clean Energy Collective, which installs community solar projects.  "We can't achieve the growth in solar that we want without them."

Business has been booming for the U.S. solar business in recent years.  The cost to install panels has dropped 50 percent since 2010; the sector adds jobs an average of 10 times faster than the rest of the economy; and the country's installed solar capacity grew 34 percent in 2014 alone.

But for all its growth, solar still makes up less than 1 percent of the U.S. energy portfolio. That's at least partly because of high costs and other market forces, and resistance by utilities, which see distributed rooftop solar arrays as a long-term threat to their business model.  But it's also because solar is simply unattainable by the millions of Americans who rent their homes or businesses, or live or operate in buildings with no available roof space for panels, policy and renewable energy experts said.

Solar panels cost an average $23,000 for a 5-kilowatt system, which would cover approximately half of the average American household's monthly electricity demand; once installed, they are hard to move.  The Obama administration's strategy would funnel $520 million from foundations, governments and social impact investors to building so-called community or shared solar farms, where renters can buy shares or memberships into the projects.  The energy the farms produce is then sold to local utilities, and members get reduced electricity bills every month.

The new initiative also pledges to install 300 megawatts of renewable energy in federally subsidized housing by 2020—triple the previous pledge—and employ AmeriCorps, the federal government's service program, to install solar capacity and hire solar workers in low-income communities.

Read more at Solar Breakthrough Could Be on the Way for Renters