This screenshot from a Warwick resident’s O&R bill shows the discount she received for her community solar subscription in January 2025. (“CDG” stands for “Community Distributed Generation,” which is industry-speak for “community solar.”) The red arrow points out she had no credits going into January, an indication that most likely her annual allocation was too small. The green arrow points out this month her subscription still saved her $4.47 off her bill, which amounted to almost $100 for electricity. If she had a full allocation, her savings would have been twice as much. (
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In the past, Sustainable Warwick has encouraged local residents and businesses to sign up for community solar. If you don’t or can’t have solar panels on your property, simply by subscribing to community solar you can save up to 10% on your electricity bills through community solar.
The 10% savings comes when everything is working right, which it usually does. But lately I’ve learned some customers are not getting the full benefit. At this time of year, the days are short, so naturally the production of solar energy is low.
Some community solar subscribers will see on their bills that they have no remaining solar generation credits from previous months, and the credits generated this month only covered a small fraction of their bill. In this case, they are not getting a 10% discount on the full bill, perhaps only a 3% or 4% discount for a month like this.
This happens when the community solar company has not allocated enough generation to a particular account. The allocation is supposed to be based on the total annual usage of electricity. If a customer has no remaining credits from prior months in January or February, it means they should have been getting more credits on their account the prior summer.
If you are a community solar customer and this is happening to you, please contact your community solar company and ask to have your allocation increased. You could also contact Sustainable Warwick (cleanenergy@sustainablewarwick.org) if you have questions about community solar and your allocation.
Michael Helme
Sustainable Warwick