Community Solar Providers

• Website / Contact Information: PowerMarket

If your municipality would like PowerMarket’s assistance with a community solar campaign, please reach out to PowerMarket’s Director of Community Energy Brad Tito (former Clean Energy Communities Program Manager for NYSERDA) at (716) 466-5666 or brad.tito@powermarket.io. He will serve as your point of contact throughout the campaign. PowerMarket is a New York company with a wealth of experience helping local governments in New York develop and manage clean energy programs and campaigns.” 

• What are the annual net savings on electricity supply costs? Are these savings guaranteed? 

With PowerMarket, subscribers are guaranteed to save 10 percent of the value of the community solar credits applied to their bill. 

• Do you provide any incentives for customers, such as offers for joining?  

PowerMarket has offered incentives in the past, but we believe in promoting community solar based on its merits and the benefits it can provide to customers and communities. For example, in one campaign we were able to enroll 12% of the households in the Town (200+ sign-ups) without gift cards or additional incentives. This demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach. 

• How is billing structured? Are the bills consolidated with the customer’s utility bill? 

All our projects are consolidated billing. No separate bill. 

• What is the Subscription Structure including Term, Fees – are there any fees to join, penalties for leaving, or canceling your subscription? 

There are no fees including no sign-up fees and no cancellation fees. The subscriber may terminate the Agreement with no penalty by providing written notice. The term of the agreement is generally one year and is automatically extended for twenty years. 

• Where are your NYS Project Locations/Utility Territories/Availability? 

PowerMarket has relationships with more than 50 community solar developers, and we manage more than 300 projects across 10 U.S. states. It depends on what is available at the time of the campaign. We are happy to provide details of project locations and availability.  

• Are you willing to work with a municipality on outreach for a NYSERDA Clean Energy Communities Campaign? This will involve reporting back to them sign-ups in their municipality. If yes, are there any additional incentives or support you will provide the municipality? 

PowerMarket has served as the community solar partner on more than a dozen community campaigns including Ulster County, Albany County, Sustainable Putnam, City of Kingston, Town of LaFayette, Town of Hebron, Town of Queensbury, Village of Hurley, Village of Olive, and Village of West Winfield. We provide planning assistance, marketing materials, mailings, customer support, and a custom landing page for easy sign-up. PowerMarket can also provide a free estimate of the savings from enrolling municipal buildings and facilities into community solar to save money on utilities for municipal operations.  

• Please provide references/links to Past Projects in Region:  

1) Mark Distler Town of LaFayette Deputy Supervisor  

2) Jill Nadolski, Town of Hebron Climate Smart Hebron Coordinator and Town Board Member 

3) Julie Noble, Sustainability Director City of Kingston 

4) Leo Wegman, Sustainable Westchester 

PowerMarket can provide contact information upon request.  

• Do you have an easy way for customers to speak with a representative? Is there anything else you would like municipalities to know about your customer service? 

PowerMarket has a dedicated customer support group staffed and open from 9am-6pm EST on weekdays to serve constituents via phone, email, and online. Our Customer Support team uses all commercially reasonable efforts to provide customer care to help answer questions and to address all campaign-related needs and issues. PowerMarket is committed to multilingual support for participants in all its programs, including employing bilingual staff members. 

• Do you have projects built specifically for Low to Moderate income subscribers? And/or can anyone join your projects? Are there credit checks? 

We have projects dedicated to Low To Moderate income subscribers and we have projects where anyone can join. No credit checks are required.  

• Website / Contact Information: Solar Simplified.

For all Community Solar related inquiries, please reach out to Sasha Lukovenko, VP of Sales and Marketing, at 312.216.0978 or sasha@solarsimplified.com.

• What are the annual net savings on electricity supply costs? Are these savings guaranteed?

Our Community Solar program offers 10% guaranteed savings on all applied solar credits (covering all charges, not just supply charges).

• Do you have any incentives for customers, such as offers for joining?

We offer a referral bonus - for every referral you bring you and your referral get a $25 gift card.

• How is billing structured? Are the bills consolidated with the customer’s utility bill?

Consolidated billing is available across all of our projects in NY State, with the exception of 2 projects in the National Grid utility territory, which are on dual billing.

• What are the terms – are there any fees to join, penalties for leaving, or canceling your subscription?

Our subscriptions are on a month-to-month basis. We do not charge any fees or penalties. There is a 90-day cancellation period that the utility requires. This is a requirement for all Community Solar programs, not just Solar Simplified.

• Where are your NYS Project Locations/Utility Territories/Availability?

NY projects with current availability:

• • Gloversville NY, National Grid territory, 500 average sized households
  • Troupsburg NY, NYSEG territory, 700 average sized households

We are continuously expanding our solar project portfolio, so please contact us to learn more about our up-to-date availability.

• Are you willing to work with a municipality on outreach for a NYSERDA Clean Energy Communities Campaign? This will involve reporting back to them sign-ups in their municipality. If yes, are there any additional incentives or support you will provide the municipality?

We have successfully assisted a number of municipalities and are happy to continue working with municipalities on all aspects related to Community Campaigns. We work on all marketing initiatives and cover all associated costs.

We offer various civic contributions to the municipalities, depending on available capacity and the utility territory of the given projects.   

•  Do you have an easy way for customers to speak with a representative? Is there anything else you would like municipalities to know about your customer service?

Our in-house customer service team is available to assist with any inquiries via email at cs@solarsimplified.com and phone at 888.420.9831. Also, a 24-hour answering service is available to current and prospective customers.

Additionally, our community relations team manages all municipality relationships.

• Please provide references/links to Past Projects in Region:

Our Media page has a lot of information about our current and past projects: www.SolarSimplified.com/media

• Do you have projects built specifically for Low to Moderate income subscribers? And/or can anyone join your projects? Are there credit checks?

We don’t have any projects that are exclusive to LMI subscribers. However, we have several projects in the National Grid utility territory that reserve 20-40% of the project’s capacity for LMI customers. Otherwise, everyone is welcome to join our Community Solar program.

We pull a soft credit check only to verify the customer identity. This does not affect the customer’s credit and we do not use any of the retrieved information in the subscription process.

• Website / Contact Information: Solstice. If you would like to get in touch with Solstice about running a community solar campaign for your municipality, you may send an email to partnerships@solstice.us or give the partnerships team a ring directly at (866) 615-2178. Solstice's partnerships team members work directly with municipalities across New York and the country to talk through their options, run holistic campaigns that meet enrollment targets, and integrate subscribers from each municipality into the larger Solstice subscriber base. They can answer any and all questions about that process directly.

• What are the annual net savings on electricity supply costs? Are these savings guaranteed? 

Solstice subscribers in New York save 10% on all solar credits applied to their electric bills, which cover both supply and delivery charges. That 10% discount rate is locked in and guaranteed.

• Do you provide any incentives for customers, such as offers for joining?  

All subscribers can earn $50 upfront when they enroll with Solstice.  When Solstice partners directly with a municipality, we also will donate an additional $50 to a cause of that municipality's choosing - ideally one that provides added motivation for residents to get involved in supporting sustainability. In the past Solstice campaign donations have gone to efforts such as youth education programs or energy-efficient street lighting for the town.

• How is billing structured? Are the bills consolidated with the customer’s utility bill? 

Solstice has both consolidated and two-bill community solar projects in New York. The savings are the same, but customers often prefer consolidated because it's simpler to keep track of. We're happy to discuss each municipality's and customer's needs and assign subscribers to the projects that make most sense for them!

• What is the Subscription Structure including Term, Fees – are there any fees to join, penalties for leaving, or canceling your subscription? 

There are no fees to join or penalties for cancelling with Solstice. We often suggest that subscribers do their best to give 90 days' notice when they are going to cancel, as it can take that long for the utility company to formally remove them from the community solar farm - but there are no penalties for not doing so. Customers can keep their subscription if they're moving to another community solar-eligible household.

• Where are your NYS Project Locations/Utility Territories/Availability? 

Solstice has projects serving Central Hudson, O&R, National Grid, and ConEd customers. Most current Solstice projects have been initially filled and are fully operational, but spots open up all the time with the result that there are opportunities for customers to enroll and begin earning savings right away. Solstice is also actively bringing on new projects in New York that will offer savings on a more standard timeline.

• Are you willing to work with a municipality on outreach for a NYSERDA Clean Energy Communities Campaign? This will involve reporting back to them sign-ups in their municipality. If yes, are there any additional incentives or support you will provide the municipality? 

Solstice loves working with municipalities on Clean Energy Communities campaigns! We take pride in working directly with local communities to make solar work for their residents, and have done so with more than 20 municipalities to date. Our partnerships include weekly report-outs and check-ins on progress until all milestones are met. Typical campaigns include a co-branded community solar landing page tailored for your municipality with testimonials from local leaders, marketing collateral sent to every resident in the municipality, live educational webinars and enrollment opportunities in-person or digitally, and further digital promotions through social media and email. Further efforts are available for municipalities with ambitious enrollment targets.

The primary barrier to partnership is simply availability, since our projects tend to fill up quite quickly. As long as there are spots open in a municipality's utility zone, Solstice is thrilled to coach the community in earning points toward CSC certification.

• Please provide references/links to Past Projects in Region:  

Feel free to visit Solstice's projects page to get a sense of our presence in New York. We have enrolled more than 4,000 subscribers in the state, and have worked on several extremely successful campaigns with municipalities such as Ulster County and the Towns of Gallatin and Ancram, all of which resulted in 50+ Solstice signups.

• Customer Service – Do you have an easy way for customers to speak with a representative? Is there anything else you would like municipalities to know about your customer service? 

Solstice has a complete in-house support team dedicated to serving our customers, giving them additional ways to benefit from clean energy, and resolving their questions. You can see our full staff on Solstice's team page. Customers can reach our support team directly between 9am-6pm ET via email or phone, and our average inquiry resolution time is just a couple of hours. We're very proud of our 9/10 average customer satisfaction rating!

• Do you have projects built specifically for Low to Moderate income subscribers? And/or can anyone join your projects? Are there credit checks? 

Solstice was founded by two women of color in order to serve underserved communities, especially low- to moderate-income (LMI) households. As a result, more than half of our subscribers qualify as LMI. Anyone can join community solar with Solstice, and the vast majority of Solstice's projects do not involve credit checks. Solstice's NYC project for ConEd customers, specifically, has a 25% LMI subscriber requirement.

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