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The U.S. Department of Energy National Community Solar Partnership (NCSP) hosted a webinar series called ‘Building with Benefits: Meaningful Benefits as a Foundation for Equitable Community Solar’ to explore best practices in building replicable and scalable community solar projects that deliver meaningful benefits to subscribers and their communities.

NCSP has defined a set of five meaningful benefits as key outcomes for equitable community solar projects, including greater household savings, low-to moderate-income household access, increased resilience and grid benefits, community ownership, and equitable workforce development and entrepreneurship.

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The ‘Building with Benefits’ webinar series featured leading experts in each of the five categories, plus an innovation and community engagement category. Webinars also featured winners from the 2022 Sunny Awards for Equitable Community Solar to explore how best practices can be used to develop community solar projects with meaningful benefits at scale. Community solar developers, community-based organizations, local and state government leaders, utilities, and other groups involved in developing or supporting community solar projects or programs participated in these webinars to learn from leaders in the field and discussed best practices in building equitable community solar systems.

Webinar Schedule 

May 22, 2023: Building with Benefits: Greater Household Savings 

  • This webinar explored existing best practices and new opportunities for community solar projects and programs to deepen the benefits of greater household savings. This included how projects and programs determine the level of bill savings provided, how bill savings are delivered, and key resources and partnerships that can be leveraged to maximize the impact of bill savings for subscribers. 
  • Slidedeck | Recording

May 31, 2023: Building with Benefits: Low- to Moderate-Income Access 

  • This webinar explored existing best practices and new opportunities for community solar projects and programs to increase access to community solar for low- to moderate-income households. This included outreach and engagement strategies, best practices for enrollment and verification, and key consumer protection considerations for low- to moderate-income households. 
  • Slidedeck | Recording

June 7, 2023: Building with Benefits: Increased Resilience  

  • This webinar explored existing best practices and new opportunities for community solar projects and programs to increase resilience and grid benefits for subscribers and their communities. This included sizing and siting storage, resources and partnerships that support increased resilience, and strategies to maximize the impact of resilience efforts for subscribers and their communities.
  • Slidedeck | Recording

July 5, 2023: Building with Benefits: Equitable Workforce Development  

  • This webinar explored existing best practices and new opportunities for community solar projects and programs to support more equitable opportunities to participate in the clean energy workforce and pathways to high quality jobs. This included mechanisms for supporting access for women-owned or minority-owned businesses, best practices for training programs and recruitment, and key resources and partnerships that support the development of equitable workforce. 
  • Slidedeck | Recording

July 12, 2023: Building with Benefits: Community Engagement and Innovation 

  • This webinar explored existing best practices and new opportunities for community solar projects and programs to provide additional benefits beyond the five meaningful benefits to subscribers and their communities. It also explored mechanisms for authentically engaging community members in the design and development of community solar projects and programs. 
  • Slidedeck | Recording

July 25, 2023: Building with Benefits: Community Ownership  

  • This webinar explored existing best practices and new opportunities for community solar projects and programs to include opportunities for community ownership of community solar assets or other wealth-building strategies. These strategies include ownership models, what types of benefits can be derived through ownership, resources and partnerships that support increased ownership, and how ownership and other wealth building strategies might be scaled broadly.  
  • Slidedeck | Recording

Additional Information