Lower your electricity bills with community solar

Joining your state’s community solar program is free! Think of it as a reward for supporting renewable energy. States receive funding from the government and are incentivized to increase their clean energy generation to meet America’s aggressive carbon-zero goals. Community solar developers and solar farm owners get a piece of those incentives in the form of tax breaks, while subscribers like you, receive a discount off your bill. This entices more people to participate in community solar and ensures everyone is benefitting from clean energy. It’s a win for you, a win for states, and a win for the planet.

We analyze your historical electricity usage to understand how many credits you’ll need each month from your solar farm. States typically allow for higher electricity users to get a larger “share” of the farm’s energy output, bringing them additional savings, since their bills are higher from the start. But low electricity users can still save! Perch needs to see your historical usage before we can assign you to a solar farm.

Not directly. Instead of your home or business being powered by the solar farm, your subscription helps support the farm’s operations so it can produce clean energy for the overall electric grid. From there, the utility distributes it as needed throughout their service territory.

Rooftop solar is, of course, installed directly on one’s roof. If you’re a renter, a homeowner, or business owner without a suitable roof, or you just don’t want to spend the money, rooftop solar may not be right for you. Rooftop solar is a big financial decision, often costing upwards of $15,000 or more (ConsumerAffairs). It’s a long-term investment and estimates suggest it takes anywhere between 8-15 years or more to pay off the upfront cost (EcoWatch), though there are many factors that could shorten or prolong that. The benefit is that you can dramatically reduce your electricity bills, or even sell excess energy back to the utility. But for many years, those savings are just going toward offsetting the installation cost. Community solar is free to get started, it doesn’t require a rooftop or home ownership, has no cost to cancel, and it brings consistent, incremental savings to you!

No. While solar development is growing rapidly nationwide, right now there are still just a small fraction of community solar farms compared to what we expect in the coming years. And once a farm’s subscription spots fill up, it can no longer take on new subscribers. So if there’s a solar farm in your area—lucky you!

Perch makes money from the solar farm owners. They hire us to help bring on subscribers (like you!) and manage your community solar service, crediting, billing and more for as long as you’re subscribed. Many solar project owners rely on Perch for the expertise, technology, and desire to provide these services. The good news is when you join a community solar program through Perch, we’re there for you and happy to answer any questions you have during your subscription!