Community Solar FAQ

Community solar is great for renters! Solar panels are installed at a third party location, typically a warehouse. The electricity generated from the solar panels goes to Con Edison’s grid and is converted into a monetary credit applied as a discount to your Con Edison bill.

As a subscriber, you will only pay for 90% of the value of the Solar Credits and the remaining 10% is pocketed savings. As a reminder, the monetary credit (or Solar Credit) is applied to your Con Edison bill, lowering your charges.

Solar One is an environmental education and technical assistance non-profit, we are not an energy supply company (ESCO) and we do not help households sign up for an ESCO. We help NYC residents learn about and enroll in community solar projects so that everyone can reap the benefits of the green economy. Community solar provides guaranteed savings to subscribers because you’ll only ever pay for 90% of the credits you receive, and that rate is locked in while ESCO rates can fluctuate.

Community solar is not an ESCO. Community solar allows individual households to share one large, local solar energy system and reduce their entire electric Con Edison bill through solar credits – guaranteed. Meanwhile, ESCOs offer a variable rate of electricity through green energy sources such as wind, typically located outside of NYC. 

You can start to see savings as early as 60 days after signing the community solar agreement, but sometimes it can take longer. It will depend on the project you sign up for, and we can provide that estimated timeline after you fill out the intake form. 

There are no enrollment fees.

The only qualification is to be a Con Edison customer.

No, all payments go through Con Edison still and you can continue with the current payment method set up, such as automatic payments. Solar credits are set up on auto-pay from the billing information provided.

You can cancel at any time with no fee or penalty. Some community solar projects require a 30 day notice.