Joshua Copping
The UK’s installed capacity of solar power expanded rapidly over the past decade to reach 17.2 gigawatts (GW) in 2024 enough electricity to power roughly 4 million homes. The government aims to raise solar generation capacity to 70 GW by 2035. And by 2050, the government’s advisers estimate that as much as 90 GW of solar power may be needed to achieve net zero emissions.By: &Source: The Conversation
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Installing solar panels on a building or household can come with a variety of issues. For homeowners, these limitations include roof shape/size constraints, shading, grid capacity, and zoning regulations. Non-homeowners cannot make building modifications like solar installations.
Additionally, low-income households in the U.S. face an energy burden (a term used by the U.S. Department of Energy to define how much of a household’s gross income is spent on paying for energy) that is roughly triple the amount of other U.S. households.
With around 50 million low-income U.S. households (about 44% of the U.S. household total), many U.S. residents are spending large amounts of their income on energy. Many of these residents, whether they are renters or their properties don’t support installation, don’t have access to solar. Community solar functions similarly to conventional grid-supply energy insofar as it provides energy remotely, requiring no installation or maintenance on the part of the consumer.
Because of community solar projects’ remote nature, the physical limitations of solar installation for consumers disappear. Also, due to its subscription/opt-in functionality, community solar can increase access to solar energy for low-income households. These projects benefit initial investors too. As consumer rates for solar energy become lower through distributed generation of community solar, initial investors in community solar projects experience higher returns in the long run.
Centralizing the location of solar systems can thereby create advantages over residential installations:
- Avoiding trees, roof size and/or configuration limitations, adjacent buildings, the immediate microclimate and/or other factors which may reduce power output at the residential location;
- Avoiding building codes, zoning restrictions, homeowner association rules and aesthetic concerns;
- Reduced maintenance requirements;
- Reduced installation costs;
- Return-on-investment.
There are also a number of social/community benefits of community solar:
- Expanding participation to include renters and others who are not residential property owners.
- Increased solar access for low-income residents;
- Community solar’s ability to generate jobs and educational resources
Community energy is carving out an increasingly prominent role within the UK’s energy transition, a shift recognized by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, which committed £10 million to community energy groups in August 2023. The first community solar farm in the United Kingdom is the 5 MW Westmill Solar Park, near Watchfield.
Other community-owned solar farms in the United Kingdom include:
- The Leominster Community Solar initiative, which installed 49kW of solar arrays on Bridge Street Sports Centre in Leominster in November 2011.
- The Ovesco Community Solar initiative, which generates 92,000 kWh of electricity each year.
- The Bath and West Community Energy initiative, which is part of 1.5 MW of community-owned solar in the area.
- Kent Community Energy solar farm has been grid-connected since 2016, and was brought under community ownership in 2023. The 5 MW solar farm is located in Sittingbourne.
- Orchard Farm Solar Array is a 5 MW ground mounted array near Sittingbourne, Kent.
- The 4.4 MW Creacombe solar farm was connected to the grid in 2019, and came under community ownership in 2023.
- The 2.9 MW Marlands solar farm in Devon was brought under community ownership in 2023.
- Newton Downs is a 5 MW solar farm that was brought under community ownership in 2018.
- Twemlows solar farm is a 10 MW solar farm near Whitchurch, north Shropshire. It was built in 2015 using private finance, but was brought under community ownership in 2023.
- The North Angle Solar Park is a 30 MW solar farm that is not yet built, but under proposal in Soham. It would be funded, owned, and maintained by Cambridgeshire County Council.
Solar power is cleaner than electricity from fossil fuels, so can be better for the environment. Solar power does not lead to harmful emissions during operation, but the production of the panels creates some pollution. The carbon footprint of manufacturing is less than 1kg CO2/Wp, and this is expected to fall as manufacturers use more clean electricity and recycled materials.
Solar power carries an upfront cost to the environment via production with a carbon payback time of several years as of 2022, but offers clean energy for the remainder of their 30-year lifetime. Large scale solar power can contribute land degradation. The life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of solar farms are less than 50 gram (g) per kilowatt-hour (kWh), but with battery storage could be up to 150 g/kWh.
In contrast, a combined cycle gas-fired power plant without carbon capture and storage emits around 500 g/kWh, and a coal-fired power plant about 1000 g/kWh. Similar to all energy sources where their total life cycle emissions are mostly from construction, the switch to low carbon power in the manufacturing and transportation of solar devices would further reduce carbon emissions.
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