A Community Solar Program that will help homeowners and businesses save money on electric bills and help the city toward its goal of using 100% renewable energy is signing up new customers, according to Elgin Area Climate Action NOW.
Under the program, electricity users can purchase subscriptions for solar-powered, renewable energy without the need to install solar panels, said Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, co-coordinator of Elgin Area Climate Action Now, known as CAN.
“This is an option to save a little bit on electrical costs,” Brumbaugh-Cayford said. “It’s important we continue to push renewable energy. It’s very important to wean ourselves off fossil fuel as an energy source.”
CAN was formed a few years ago by environmentally minded people who wanted to encourage the city to pass a resolution declaring a climate emergency, Brumbaugh-Cayford said. The Elgin City Council passed the resolution embracing that message in June 2020.
The volunteer advocacy group started looking at what the next steps could be for the city, Brumbaugh-Cayford said. “Our goal is to advocate and help encourage the city and other public entities in our area to take effective climate action,” she said.
CAN worked with the Sustainability Commission and city staff to move toward renewable energy through an aggregation program, Brumbaugh-Cayford said. Elgin’s two-pronged approach is to establish an aggregation program and to back the Community Solar Program, she said.
An aggregation program will start when the cost of renewable energy comes down, hopefully later this spring, Brumbaugh-Cayford said. The Community Solar Program has already started.
Elgin sponsors the Community Solar Program, but it’s offered through the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus and administrated through MC Squared Energy Services, said Tom Armstrong, chairman of the city’s Sustainability Commission.
Residents can learn more about the program and register at cityofelgin.org/communitysolar, he said. The city also sent fliers to residents, he said.
The benefits of the Community Solar Program include an estimated 20% savings on the electricity supply through net metering credits, no sign-up or termination fees and support for renewable energy sources and solar farms, officials said.
Customers continue to be serviced by ComEd, Brumbaugh-Cayford said.
“You’re actually paying the solar farm, but you pay ComEd for distribution, fees and taxes that ComEd uses to get the electricity to your house,” she said.
Local solar farms supply the solar energy, Brumbaugh-Cayford said. ComEd is the distributor, which gets the solar energy on the grid, she said. A homeowner or business that signs up for the Community Solar Program gets two bills, one from the supplier and one from ComEd, she said. The savings is about 20% for subscribers, she said.
“The more renewable electricity we pay for the more renewable electricity will be on the grid and the less fossil fuel will be on the grid,” Brumbaugh-Cayford said.
Increases in “fossil fuel costs may mean it becomes more and more feasible and more and more cost-effective to purchase renewable,” she said. “I think that’s the end goal. It’s clear to me renewables will become the cost-effective energy source.”
CAN is working on outreach efforts to get the word out about the program and explain its benefits, Brumbaugh-Cayford said.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
