The Prologis Rooftop Community Solar project in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, was selected as a Grand Prize winner for the 2023 Sunny Awards for Equitable Community Solar, an initiative of the National Community Solar Partnership (NCSP).
NCSP, a program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), supports a coalition of stakeholders working to expand access to affordable community solar to every U.S. household and enable communities to realize meaningful benefits, such as greater household savings, low- to moderate-income (LMI) household access, increased resilience, community ownership, and equitable workforce development. NCSP is working toward a 2025 target to enable community solar to power the equivalent of 5 million households and generate a cumulative $1 billion in energy bill savings.
The Sunny Awards were launched in 2022 to recognize community solar projects and programs that employ best practices to increase equitable access to the meaningful benefits of community solar for subscribers and their communities. Meaningful benefits are key outcomes of community solar development identified by the NCSP. These community solar benefits bring positive impacts to the households, organizations, and the surrounding communities where the projects are developed and operate.
Project Overview
- Project Name: Prologis Rooftop Community Solar
- Location: Perth Amboy, NJ
- Project Size: 2.67 MW
- Project Subscribers: 400+ residential subscribers, more than half of which are LMI
- Year Energized: 2021
- Lead Organization: Solar Landscape LLC
- Partner Organizations: Prologis
- Business Model: Third-party, for profit
- State Incentives Leveraged: New Jersey Community Solar Energy Pilot Program
- Bill Savings: Approximately 20%, depending on LMI status
- LMI Access: 51%
Meaningful Benefits Best Practices
The 2.67 MW Prologis Rooftop Community Solar project was developed on the rooftop of a commercial warehouse in Perth Amboy, New Jersey and was the first community solar project to be energized in 2021 as part of New Jersey’s Community Solar Energy Pilot Program. Owned and operated by Solar Landscape LLC, the project serves over 400 homes in the area, the majority of which are LMI households, and was strategically sited to protect open space in the most densely populated state in the U.S.
LMI Access: As part of New Jersey’s Community Solar Energy Pilot Program, the Prologis Community Solar project is required to reserve at least 51% of its project capacity for LMI households. The project, which serves over 400 homes in a low-income disadvantaged community, exceeds this requirement, currently serving more than 200 LMI homes. The subscribers are verified in compliance with the program rules set forth by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. Solar Landscape achieves high levels of LMI household enrollment by utilizing a broad, diverse blend of outreach tactics and partnering extensively with trusted community leaders who are already engaged with and in regular communication with the multilingual residents who live near the community solar project. By adopting a personalized, hands-on approach in partnership with local grassroots organizations, Solar Landscape was able to establish its community solar project as a beneficial, trustworthy energy source.
Equitable Workforce Development and Entrepreneurship: Solar Landscape actively invests in workforce development and has educated over 1,600 students and community members about careers in green energy, including training opportunities for adults as part of the company’s STEP UP (Solar Training and Education Program for Underserved Populations) program. Solar Landscape has also hired many of its trainees and created a national network of employers who will place trainees in family-sustaining clean energy jobs.
Inclusive Outreach: Solar Landscape partnered with local nonprofit and community-based organizations to introduce community solar to nearby residents and encourage them to subscribe. Solar Landscape invited municipal and community leaders to presentations on community solar and its benefits and provided them with a toolkit for communicating about the opportunity to enroll in the project. All materials were provided in both English and Spanish.
For more information on Solar Landscape's community solar projects, visit Solar Landscape or contact Brendon Shank at brendon@solarlandscape.com.