John Farrell, whom we consider to be one of the leading thinkers on community solar, wrote this 2010 report,, which we think is worth reposting for benchmarking and reflection. Participation and ownership were the key things we wanted to experiment with in our project described in the report. This was at a time (wow, 8 years ago!) when precious little was really understood about how to actually do tax equity finance for community projects, while at the same time there was plenty of hype about tax credits and the good times to come. David Brosious at University Park Solar (another of the author’s case studies) was a smart thought partner and generous fellow traveler.

“When I read this report and see John Farrell’s “report card” for community solar projects, just like when I read so many others, my first reaction is that we (AIRE and the rest of us) really haven’t made any progress relative to the urgency. Sometimes the truth hurts, and in this case it’s also dangerous in terms of the need for a rapid transition to zero-carbon energy. But we keep trying!” — Steve Owen, Executive Director – AIRE