Platform for Solarize Campaigns in Communities Crosses 1,000-Installation Threshold

ATLANTA, Feb. 2, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Solar Crowdsource has surpassed adding 7 megawatts of renewable energy throughout the multiple communities in the Southeast that the platform has supported in mounting successful local Solarize campaigns, bringing solar energy to more than 1,000 rooftops since its launch in 2015.

Offering tools to create and administer local group-purchasing Solarize campaigns, Solar Crowdsource helps communities add solar and battery power milestones to their renewable energy goals more efficiently and effectively -- and without burdensome out-of-pocket administrative costs.

By the numbers, the firm – working hand in hand with multiple local government and non-profit organization leaders since its creation – has added:

• More than 1,000 residential and commercial rooftop projects
• A total of 7.22 megawatts of new clean energy capacity
• More than 2.7 MWh of battery storage

In addition, across more than a dozen successful Solarize campaigns to date, Solar Crowdsource has helped the communities it's served avoid 182,100+ tons of CO2 over 25 years.

"We're grateful to have worked with local governments and nonprofit organizations on their shared missions to make solar more affordable and accessible and reduce local reliance on fossil fuels," said Don Moreland, founder of Solar Crowdsource, which started up in 2015. "We were first asked to find a way to help make it simpler and easier for communities to forge 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 both in the Southeast and the Caribbean."

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

Among its most recent campaigns was the nation-leading Solarize Asheville-Buncombe. That 2021 initiative, from its conception by a coalition of local organizations in late 2020 to its community launch in April 2021 and completion at year-end, was designed to spark new interest in solar power by communicating its benefits and reducing its entry price. By purchasing together, over the lifespan of their systems, homeowners who added rooftop solar via Solarize in Asheville-Buncombe alone will save more than $8.35 million over 25 years in utility bill costs for their households. Much of this benefits the local economy as well as contributes to the community's climate strategy.

"Solarize Asheville-Buncombe provided a pathway for more locally-produced clean energy, directly contributing 1.45 MW of new solar to our local clean energy goals of 100% renewable energy for our community by 2042," said Sophie Mullinax, Blue Horizons Project manager and coalition partner involved in the Solarize Asheville-Buncombe campaign. "Working with Solar Crowdsource was pivotal to the campaign's success. From our campaign's inception, Solar Crowdsource provided our small team with guidance, solar industry expertise, and ready assistance with every facet of our campaign from drafting an installer RFP to navigating the uncharted territory of providing grants for no-cost solar systems to low-income Buncombe County households."

This campaign and others like it more recently have developed sub-program components aimed at serving Low- and Median-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 which are typically part of a 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.

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 free up funds for the recipient organization to help achieve its mission more economically.

Solar Crowdsource's Solarize campaigns have so far resulted in 115kW of donated solar energy systems to nonprofits. Among others, these include a 10kW solar canopy structure for Global Growers, a Clarkston, Ga., nonprofit organization that partners with people from diverse cultures to grow fresh food for their families and for local marketplaces; and a 17kW system for Nuci's Space, which provides suicide prevention service to artist and musicians in the Athens, Ga., community.

According to RMI, an independent nonprofit based in Boulder, Colo., and focused on transforming energy systems globally, "One useful program that local governments can consider is a 'Solarize,' or community bulk-purchasing, campaign, which has been shown to reduce solar costs and address marketing and outreach barriers to solar."

"Solar Crowdsource is great at helping communities realize their clean energy visions, one rooftop at a time," said Jennette Gayer, Director of Environment Georgia, which helped to jump-start Solarize campaigns in Georgia. "Beyond the megawatt additions and carbon reductions, the solar champions that we've helped to identify are priceless."

"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," said Moreland. "Solar Crowdsource stands ready to help cities adopt and harness Solarize campaigns in support of faster attainment of their local clean energy goals."

To learn more about how Solar Crowdsource assists communities in their renewable energy goals and to browse campaigns in various 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 adds 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, and at no expense to the community.

Media Contact

Ken Haldin, Solar CrowdSource, 1 4044052924, [email protected]

Don Moreland, Solar CrowdSource, 770-548-2714, [email protected]

SOURCE Solar CrowdSource