More and more people are going solar even if they don't own a home, don't have a sunny rooftop, can't afford to buy their own rooftop system, or simply don't want the fuss of installing and operating their own system. Led by rural electric co-ops responding to their members, what's changed is the arrival of community solar, also known as “shared solar” or “solar gardens” or even “SolarCondo” ownership.
The Clean Energy Collective helped launch this new own or lease option with a community-owned solar array near El Jebel, Colorado in 2010. Now CEC has developed more than 90 community solar facilities shared by individual households and businesses which each receive credits on their monthly electricity bills for their share of the electric power generated and delivered to the grid. CEC has partnered with 28 utilities in 12 states to create these projects.