Community Solar?

[Finishline42]

I've long thought that Community Solar should be a larger part of the solar movement. One advantage is that you can buy in increments so that people without a lot of money could begin the path to self-sufficiency at a younger age. Solar PV is a long term investment taking sometimes over a decade to break even on the investment (maybe longer?). Community Solar would follow someone to start the path living in apartments to a starter home to a larger home to your retirement home without regard to trees, roof orientation and local restrictions. Some of the advantages of community solar is that because more panels are installed, labor is a smaller component of the cost.


Peer-reviewed research finds that community solar makes cheap renewable power available to more people, including those who live in rentals and multifamily buildings.

The sun showers us all with energy, but not everyone can put solar panels on their roofs to harness it for themselves. Enter community solar, an increasingly popular way to expand access to solar and help fix its equity issues. For the first time, evidence shows that it’s working.

Community solar allows customers to reap electric bill savings by subscribing to a share of a local solar project, rather than installing their own array. It’s an arrangement that ideally makes the benefits of solar more accessible to people who live in rental or multifamily housing and those who just can’t afford the upfront cost of rooftop systems. Forty-two states have community solar projects in place — but the precise nature of who has benefited remained unclear. Until now.

A June study by researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory that analyzed data from 11 states found that people who adopt community solar are 6.1 times more likely to live in multifamily buildings, are 4.4 times more likely to rent, and earn 23 percent less annual income than rooftop solar adopters, who skew wealthy.

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/energy-equity/community-solar-expands-access-to-clean-energy-new-study-shows

[Ocelot II]

1. I signed up for it a number of years ago.

There's a big solar array somewhere out in the country that's connected to the power company's grid. Seems to be a bit cheaper than what I was paying the power company.

[SeattleVet]

2. We invested in community solar in Seattle a few years ago.

We also have a 9kw system on our roof.

It all paid for itself in about 7 years. We get a check every year.

[Finishline42]

3. What I have wondered

Why doesn't Tesla have a community solar program for Tesla owners? Tesla manufactures solar panels so it would be a natural way to install large numbers of them which would help to lower the cost. Have a program that gives a discount when using a supercharger after buying shares?

And now that most other EV brands are going to the Tesla standard for charging, offer it to them as well.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Tesla is for elitists

Tesla got rich selling luxury EV’s (good EV’s decked out like luxury cars, with a luxury car price tag and luxury profit margins.) EV’s that didn’t drive or look like what people thought an electric car looked like.


Tesla does not sell affordable EV’s for commoners to save the world. They sell expensive EV’s to elitists who want to save the world in style.

Tesla sells solar shingles, solar panels for people who don’t want their house to look like it has solar panels on it.
https://www.tesla.com/solarroof


Tesla does not sell cars for the community. Why would they sell community solar?

[Finishline42]

6. While there is no argument from me on how Tesla started out

and continued until the last couple of years.

Just checked the Tesla site and saw a 2021 Model 3 with almost 80k miles for $25,700. Find one under $24k and you are eligible for a $3500 tax credit from the IRS.

Depends on how many miles you drive on how much you would save on gas and oil changes.

Also as you probably know, there are a number of states that have considerable incentives on top of the Federal.

Edited to add >>> I picked Tesla mostly because they make the best battery and have the best charging network (which I seldom use).

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. New York Leads U.S. on Community Solar

https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/Featured-Stories/New-York-Leads-on-Community-Solar

New York Leads U.S. on Community Solar
New York’s Two Gigawatts of Community Solar Provides Equitable Access to Renewable Energy

New York’s clean energy transition is spurring renewable energy development across the state. As of December 2023, more than two gigawatts (GW) of community solar have been installed in New York – enough to power nearly 400,000 homes.

This two GW milestone reaffirms New York’s position as the leading community solar market in the U.S., with nearly one-third of the nation’s 6.2 GW of community solar capacity located in New York. It also marks considerable progress towards achieving New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal to install six GW of distributed solar by 2025.

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Tesla got a sweetheart deal to make solar panels in New York. Are they going into New York’s community solar farms? Are they even being manufactured?

https://jalopnik.com/tesla-buffalo-new-york-solar-panel-factory-autopilot-1850615606

Read This: Nearly Half Of Tesla's Buffalo Solar Panel Factory Staff Just Analyzes Autopilot Data
New York spent $1 billion on a facility that was supposed to revive Buffalo manufacturing. Instead, many of its workers train AI driving software.
By
Adam Ismail
Published July 7, 2023

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I asked a community solar farmer if he had considered using Tesla panels. He said, “We’d love to! — Elon won’t sell them to us.”

[Finishline42]

7. My guess is that they were too expensive to make

And Elon just used the Buffalo deal to bail out his Cousin who was headed towards bankruptcy with SolarCity?

I talk with a lot of people that would love to buy a Tesla but how can you afford to if you are in an apt or rental home?

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. Tesla could make and sell standard solar panels there (as the "Gigafactory" was intended to do)

https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-new-solarcity-gigafactory-complex-riverbend

SEPTEMBER 23, 2014 Albany
Governor Cuomo Announces New SolarCity GigaFactory Complex at RiverBend

Will create nearly 5,000 jobs upstate, with over 3,000 in Buffalo

Governor breaks ground on largest solar manufacturing facility in Western Hemisphere

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced a new, one million-square-foot site for the future SolarCity GigaFactory facility, which will manufacture solar panels at the RiverBend site in South Buffalo. The Governor was in Buffalo today to officially break ground on the project, which will create more than 3,000 jobs in Western New York alone and a total of nearly 5,000 jobs in the state. The SolarCity facility will be the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere, with more than 1 gigawatt of annual solar capacity when it reaches full production.

“We said four years ago that we have to change the mentality of Buffalo, and every day since we have been working hard to continue this new energy and momentum in Western New York. Less than a year after announcing our original plan, one of the leading solar companies in the world is coming on board and making this the largest advancement for Buffalo's economy in a generation," Governor Cuomo said. “This is bigger than anything we could have imagined. It is the perfect metaphor for Buffalo, where the fundamental strength was the available hydropower. That hydropower now, that renewable energy now, will fuel the renewable energy industry for the future. I am incredibly proud that the state is playing a role in this project, because Buffalo’s future is New York’s future, and today that future is brighter than ever.”

The SolarCity GigaFactory will be located at the Buffalo High-Tech Manufacturing Innovation Hub at RiverBend, a new START-UP NY site owned by the State University of New York's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Since RiverBend was first unveiled in November 2013 by Governor Cuomo, SolarCity purchased Silevo, one of the designated anchor RiverBend tenants, and assumed an agreement with the State to increase more than fivefold the manufacturing capability of the clean energy facility. Silevo is a company that develops and manufactures high-efficiency silicon solar cells and modules.

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So, in the state with the largest amount of community solar (i.e. one with a guaranteed market) Elon chose not to make solar panels, in a purpose-built facility. Yeah, boring, affordable, highly efficient, mass market solar panels just aren’t Elon’s style.

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/tesla-buffalo-gigafactory-supercharger-v3-energy-storage/

Tesla's Buffalo factory will now build Supercharger V3 and energy storage, report says
The Buffalo, New York, factory is finally looking like it'll live up to its potential, with several new lines planned in the near future.

Kyle Hyatt
May 16, 2019 12:38 p.m. PT

"Gigafactory 2" in New York is undergoing something of an identity crisis as of late. It's now mostly being used by Panasonic to make solar components, but soon, according to a Thursday report by Electrek, Tesla will give it new purpose as the home of Supercharger V3 electronics and energy storage (think Powerwall) production. Tesla is also using the facility to ramp up production on its long-awaited Solar Roof materials.

Why is that a big deal? Well, there has been a fair amount of interest in Tesla's products that aren't cars, but with the brand's initial difficulties in getting the car into volume production, those other products got pushed somewhat to the back burner. Now that production of cars has stabilized somewhat; it's becoming possible for Tesla to use some of its cell production for these other, less demanding projects.

"In addition to scaling production of Solar Roof, Tesla is also diversifying its presence in Buffalo by manufacturing and assembling Supercharger and energy storage components at Gigafactory 2," a Tesla representative told Roadshow. "We're committed to investing in Buffalo and the State, and the new power electronic lines will deliver more high-tech jobs while supporting Tesla's energy storage products and global Supercharging infrastructure."

This second wind at the factory chould create jobs and economic growth in the Rust Belt city of Buffalo. According to the Buffalo News, Tesla is less than a year from a state-imposed deadline stating that it has to basically double the size of its workforce there or get slapped with a $41.2 million penalty. This comes from the wording of the agreement that allowed Tesla to use $750 million of taxpayer money to build the factory.

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Alright! So, maybe some roof tiles (that’s cool) and other completely non-solar stuff in a factory built to produce solar panels… Hmmm… How do you suppose that will work out?

https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/buffalo/additional-layoffs-announced-at-tesla-gigafactory-in-south-buffalo

Additional layoffs announced at Tesla Gigafactory in South Buffalo

By: Derek HeidPosted at 11:16 AM, May 02, 2024
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Another round of layoffs has been announced at Tesla's Gigafactory 2 in South Buffalo.

According to a WARN notice from the New York State Department of Labor, 27 employees have lost their jobs at the factory on South Park Ave.

This announcement comes after more than 285 workers (14% of the local workforce) lost their jobs at the same location.

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As part of that deal, Tesla leases the building for $1 a year until 2027 in exchange for keeping at least 1,460 jobs in Buffalo.

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Wait! 1,460? I thought it was going to create 3,000 jobs in Buffalo, and 2,000 elsewhere in the state. Those layoffs mean that Tesla is not meeting their minimum obligation. Could it have anything to do with the workers’ attempts to unionize? You know, Elon just hates unions.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-interfered-with-union-organizing-new-york-plant-us-agency-claims-2024-05-09/

Tesla interfered with union organizing at New York plant, US agency claims
By Daniel Wiessner
May 9, 20243:29 PM EDT

May 9 (Reuters) - Tesla (TSLA.O), has been accused by a U.S. labor agency of discouraging workers at a Buffalo, New York, assembly plant from union organizing by barring them from using phones and other devices, an agency spokeswoman said on Thursday.

A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) official issued a complaint late Wednesday claiming Tesla's workplace rule banning personal technology use, recording, and storing or sharing content violates U.S. labor law, according to the spokeswoman, Kayla Blado.

The new claims add to a pile of legal disputes between Tesla, its workers, and government agencies over the electric carmaker's employment practices, including other cases alleging unlawful anti-union conduct and a series of race discrimination lawsuits.

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Tesla, which said last month that it was laying off 14% of workers at the Buffalo plant, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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