The Solar at Congregation Beth Elohim (CBE) project 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: Solar at Congregation Beth Elohim (CBE)
- Location: Acton, MA
- Project Size: 244.8 kW
- Project Subscribers: 50% LMI subscribers, 50% CBE (16 LMI customers and 2 nonprofits)
- Year Energized: 2020
- Lead Organization: Sunwealth Power Inc.
- Partner Organizations: Congregation Beth Elohim, 621 Energy
- Business Model: Third party, for-Profit
- State Incentives Leveraged: Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) Program
- Bill Savings: 22%
- LMI Access: 50%
Meaningful Benefits Best Practices
The Solar at Congregation Beth Elohim (CBE) project comprises three solar canopies built on a synagogue in Acton, Massachusetts. Sunwealth Power Inc. owns and manages the canopies that deliver 50% of generated electricity to 16 LMI household subscribers in the community, while delivering the remaining 50% to CBE and providing them with an annual lease payment for use of their land.
LMI Access: Subscribers to this project are part of Sunwealth’s low-income community solar program, which has no upfront costs to join, no penalties for canceling, and no credit checks required to subscribe. Subscriber acquisition efforts span multiple channels including direct engagement with community members through events at the Wayland Housing Authority and communication campaigns and partnership with the City of Cambridge. Other acquisition efforts include partnering with community-based organizations, like Heading Home and Caritas Communities, to subscribe program participants, as well as leveraging EnergySage, an online platform that connects community solar projects with potential subscribers.LMI subscribers verified in two ways: subscribers are customers already enrolled in the R2/R4 utility rate, which is discounted for income eligible households (make below 60% of the state median income); subscribers reside in an income-eligible environmental justice community as dictated by the Massachusetts state EJ map where the average household income equal to or less than 65% of statewide median income. Sunwealth performs an annual LMI-verification audit across all 50% LMI offtakers to comply with SMART parameters, which ensures that benefits are accurately provided to LMI households.
Greater Household Savings: This project participates in the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) Program for low-income community solar generation and receives a compensation rate adder from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources. This additional funding allows Sunwealth to provide LMI subscribers with a 25% discount on all clean energy credits received. Sunwealth sizes customer allocation at 85-90% of their electricity usage, netting to ~22% savings on all electrical spend. There are 16 LMI customers and 2 nonprofits subscribed to this project and have received $5,669.22 in clean energy savings to date and have an expected lifetime savings of $284,638.05.
Inclusive Outreach: The City of Cambridge selected Sunwealth to be its official Low-Income Community Solar Provider partner, enabling Sunwealth to provide opportunities for LMI access among Cambridge constituents through trusted channels. Partnering with the City of Cambridge enabled Sunwealth to expand accessibility, developing contracts in Spanish and connecting us to local nonprofits to support the creation of materials in additional languages such as Portuguese and Haitian Creole. Sunwealth also creatively worked with Cambridge’s fuel assistance department, whose participants are automatically eligible for our LICSS program. Sunwealth planned and executed a targeted mail campaign to program participants to get them enrolled in solar – five Cambridge residents are subscribed to receive energy through CBE, while three subscribers reside in the Boston area. Sunwealth also hosted an event with the Wayland Housing Authority, which gave an overview of community solar, how it works, and how to get started. Sunwealth worked in concert with the housing authority to post flyers promoting the event and made them available via Zoom as well to increase accessibility. As a result, half of the CBE subscribers are from the Wayland Housing Authority.
For more information on the Solar at CBE project, visit Sunwealth or contact Eliza Mahoney at eliza@sunwealth.com.