Perspectives on Community Solar in Washington State: A Mixed Methods Comparative Case Study

Abstract

As Washington State moves the electric grid toward a renewables-based future, strong community solar policy has an opportunity to unlock the financial benefits of community solar to traditionally marginalized groups and economically empower those who have historically been denied access to such generators of prosperity due to a policy environment that eschews low-income support in favor of driving adoption among affluent Washingtonian homeowners. This study provides a comparison of state energy policymaker perspectives on community solar policy with the perspectives of the setup’s main beneficiary groups, home renters and to a lesser extent, home owners. The study sample suggests that not only is community solar more popular among the general population than policymakers perhaps realize, but that there is more than enough demand for community solar projects to support the industry if existing legislative and regulatory barriers can be removed or at least made to be less restrictive and exclusive to utility-owned community solar projects. As such, the study recommends that the state government remove the restrictions currently grounding the community solar market, and in addition implement incentive policies that drive higher inclusion of low and middle income Washingtonians in community solar projects to distribute environmental and financial benefits to a larger proportion of the population and begin addressing the state’s ever-growing socio-economic divide.