Community solar gardens are starting to bloom

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/22/idUS282339983220110722

Unlike other sources of electricity, solar is a type of power that is flexible enough to fit into many kinds of spaces, from a sloping roof on a home to a field in the middle of the desert. The latest novel example of this is so-called “solar community garden,” which are solar systems that are community-owned and shared.

Community solar gardens ideally are located within a town or city limit and serve a bunch of residents who either pay to own a piece of it or subscribe to the project without owning the equipment. Electricity from the solar panels goes to the grid and is sold to the local utility, which then credits the sale to the owners or subscribers of the solar garden. The credits then show up on each of their utility bills.

The goal is to allow renters, or anyone who doesn’t or can’t put solar on their rooftops, to still benefit from localized solar electricity generation, which is encouraged by federal and many state governments through rebate and tax incentive programs.

“We think of it as owning a garden plot in a family solar farm,” said Matt Cheney, CEO of CleanPath Ventures, at the Intersolar conference in San Francisco last week.

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Local it is. Could be a step forward from industrial-age "grid-think."

Beautiful!