Community Solar Farm

Conventional solar farms, such as Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s
. . . 550-megawatt Topaz plant in California,
. . . can spread over hundreds or thousands of acres.
. . . They sell their electricity mainly to utilities
. . . through long-term contracts.
Rooftop panels,
. . . are mainly available for private homes, and
. . . can only work on about
. . . 30% of U.S. houses.

Community farms offer a middle road,
. . . consumers who buy into a project
. . . don’t directly use the energy produced.
. . . That’s sold directly to a local utility.
. . . Instead, their electric bills are reduced,
. . . based on how much the utility buys from the farm.
With community solar,
. . . they continue to buy power from their local providers, and
. . . the utility doesn’t lose them as customers.
Also, community projects use the grid to deliver power, and
. . . help pay for maintaining the utilities’ infrastructure.
. . . That makes them less of a threat to traditional power companies,
. . . which are losing revenue to solar leasing providers.

8-17-2006 Source:  Community Solar Farm