One of the most appealing parts of community solar is knowing you are helping support renewable energy development and a cleaner electric grid.
But an important question often comes up: does participating in community solar mean you are officially “using clean energy”?
The answer is a little more nuanced, especially for businesses making formal sustainability claims.
Understanding the Electric Grid
Electricity flows through a large interconnected grid that combines power from many different sources — including solar, wind, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, and other generators.
Once electricity enters the grid, the electrons become mixed together. That means you generally cannot trace the exact electricity arriving at your home or business back to a specific solar farm or wind turbine.
This is where Renewable Energy Certificates, often called RECs, come into play.
What Are RECs?
A Renewable Energy Certificate is essentially a tracking mechanism or “receipt” tied to renewable electricity generation.
When a renewable energy project produces electricity, it also creates RECs. Those certificates can then be transferred or sold separately from the electricity itself.
Organizations that purchase and retire RECs are generally able to claim they are supporting or using renewable energy, even though their actual electricity still comes from the shared electric grid.
How This Relates to Community Solar
In most community solar programs, subscribers receive bill savings — not the RECs themselves.
In many states, the Renewable Energy Certificates associated with a community solar project are automatically transferred to the utility or another entity so those organizations can count the renewable generation toward state clean energy goals.
That means most community solar subscribers should think of participation primarily as:
- Supporting additional renewable energy development on the grid.
- Lowering electricity costs through bill credits.
- Participating in broader clean energy adoption.
However, in most cases, subscribers should not assume community solar alone allows them to formally claim they are fully “powered by renewable energy.”
Why This Matters More for Businesses
For most residential subscribers, the distinction usually is not very important. Many homeowners and renters simply want to support renewable energy while reducing electricity costs.
Businesses, nonprofits, universities, and organizations, however, may have formal sustainability reporting requirements, ESG goals, carbon reduction targets, or public environmental claims that require REC ownership.
In those situations, the details around Renewable Energy Certificates become much more important.
Are There Exceptions?
Sometimes, yes.
In select markets or larger partnerships, project owners may be willing to transfer RECs directly to subscribers or procure replacement RECs on a subscriber’s behalf.
This usually comes with tradeoffs, such as slightly reduced savings, and is generally more common for organizations with larger electricity usage.
The Big Picture
Community solar still supports renewable energy growth, even when subscribers do not directly receive RECs.
The difference is mainly about how environmental claims are formally accounted for — something that matters far more for organizations making official sustainability claims than for typical residential subscribers.
If your organization is specifically interested in both savings and formal renewable energy claims, Turquoise Trail can help evaluate what options may be available in your market.