Unique Platform for Solarize Campaigns in Communities Spurs 1,400 Rooftop Installations, 11 Megawatts of Renewable Energy Since its Inception

Solar Crowdsource assists local governments and sustainability organizations in launching successful solarize campaigns in communities across the U.S.

ATLANTA, April 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Solar Crowdsource has added more than 10 megawatts of renewable energy in multiple communities where its platform has hosted successful local Solarize campaigns, bringing solar energy to more than 1,400 rooftops since the firm's startup in 2015.

The firm works hand-in-hand to support local government and non-profit organization leaders to forge and customize their local Solarize initiatives. Offering one-of-a-kind knowledge and tools to create and administer local group-purchasing campaigns, Solar Crowdsource helps spur movement toward achieving communities' renewable energy goals more efficiently and effectively.

By the numbers, since its creation, Solar Crowdsource has helped to add:

• More than 1,400 residential and commercial rooftop projects
• A total of 11+ megawatts of new clean energy capacity
• More than 3.5 MWh of battery storage

In addition, across 19 successful Solarize campaigns to date, Solar Crowdsource has assisted the communities it has supported in avoiding 255,800+ tons of CO2 over 25 years.

"We're grateful to continue to work closely with local governments and nonprofit organization leaders in their shared missions to make solar more affordable and accessible as well as to lower local reliance on fossil fuels," said Don Moreland, founder of Solar Crowdsource. "We were first asked to find a way to help make it simpler and easier for communities to create and adopt Solarize campaigns. Since then, that vision has resulted in helping facilitate a major leap in residential solar installations in our initial seven years across five states and the Caribbean."

Solarize campaigns are customized locally by like-minded coalitions of local organizations, community members, and government to help this form of renewable energy get adopted more quickly. While the Solarize concept has been executed in various communities in the United States over the past two decades, a turnkey platform and expertise to administer grassroots Solarize campaigns was not previously available.

According to RMI, the independent clean-energy research organization, "Inclusive campaigns are overwhelmingly based on strong partnerships with both national Solarize experts and community-level organizations. Selecting a national Solarize expert to lead a community campaign…can bring decades of industry experience, remove potential governmental procurement barriers, and often accelerate campaign timelines."

Solar Crowdsource accomplishes this support without adding burdensome out-of-pocket administrative costs to local organizations and governments sponsoring these initiatives.

Among the more recent campaigns was Solarize the Triangle in the Raleigh-Durham region of North Carolina. This 2022 initiative set a national record as the Solarize program with the largest total number of enrollments of any campaign in the country.

Said Emily Barrett, Environment & Resilience Program Manager for the Triangle J Council of Governments: "Our regional collaboration with Solar Crowdsource has set the standard for what a public-private partnership should look like for the clean energy space."

She added: "You've heard of win-win solutions? Solarize programs with the help of Solar Crowdsource are a win for the homeowners and businesses who get bulk pricing on high quality and reliable solar, a win for the climate, a win for reducing energy bills, and a win for local solar business. That is a lot of wins for one partnership."

Other successful campaigns were mounted in Kansas City and Oklahoma City. New campaigns for 2023 are currently preparing to launch in Oklahoma, Georgia and Hawaii. These initiatives and others like it also develop sub-program components aimed at serving Low- and Moderate-Income residents for whom solar energy affordability has remained largely out of reach.

"Communities can leverage the bulk purchase savings that come with a traditional Solarize program to also address equity goals that are typically part of a community's overarching clean energy plan," said Moreland. Since 2020, several different models for funding and executing these LMI programs have been devised by community leaders in coordination with Solar Crowdsource staff.

Another key benefit of each community campaigns' success is a solar energy system provided free to a worthy local nonprofit organization chosen from within the community. These systems help reduce ongoing electricity costs and unlock funds for the recipient organization to help achieve its mission more economically.

Solar Crowdsource's Solarize campaigns have so far resulted in 110kW of donated solar energy systems to nonprofits.

Added Moreland: "We look forward to continuing to assist communities in their quest to dimensionalize their climate goals by stimulating the purchase of renewable energy among their citizens and across the private sector. Solar Crowdsource stands ready to help communities adopt and harness Solarize campaigns in support of faster attainment of their local clean energy goals."

To learn more about how Solar Crowdsource supports communities in their renewable energy goals and to browse campaigns mounted in various U.S. locations, visit solarcrowdsource.com.

About Solar Crowdsource:

Solar Crowdsource is a platform that facilitates community-based group purchase programs, i.e., Solarize programs, which help reduce the cost of solar and make clean, sustainable energy more available to community residents. The Solar Crowdsource platform offers a range of tools, features and educational programming that add capacity for community organizers employing Solarize programs to meet clean-energy and equity goals that are easily accessible, help remove previous barriers to obtaining and investing in solar energy — all at no expense to the community.

Contact: 
Ken Haldin
[email protected]

SOURCE Solar Crowdsource