Landowners

Diversify Your Income – Grow Energy

A community solar project is a solar electric array with multiple subscribers (participants) connected to the utility grid. If you have a good location, we want to lease part of your property from you to provide people with access to solar.

Utility customers within the community solar project’s service area, including residences, businesses, local governments, non-profits, and faith-based organizations, can all subscribe to the sun. It’s like an agricultural lease, and you are the landlord.

How It Works – Our Offer

Our goal is to make leasing as risk-free and hassle-free as possible. We agree to pay any increase in property tax liability caused by the project, and if we build before harvest we will pay for any damaged crops. The landlord is not responsible for any operating costs or maintenance. The lease consists of a development period, an operating term, and a renewal term. We pay a partial amount upfront for the development term, then we go to work getting the project approved by the utility and land use authority. If all goes well, we initiate the operating term, pay rent, and begin construction.

Good Tenants Who Respect Your Land

At the end of the lease, the solar array is removed and your property is restored to its original condition. When we build it, we don’t pour concrete to affix the solar panels to the ground. Like a dock in the lake, we pound in a system of I-beams. A rack goes on the beams, and the panels go on the rack. This process makes removal easy. We also post a financial security deposit before construction begins to assure that money will be set aside to remove the project at the end of the lease.

The solar array is odorless, motionless, and silent. It does not emit any light, have any lubricants, or smells, or contain any hazardous materials. Underneath the array, we plant an indigenous pollinator-friendly seed mix that is good for bees, prevents erosion, and improves soil quality.

Eichten's Hidden Acres

Eichten’s Hidden Acres, a family-owned cheese and buffalo ranch, is home to more than 15,000 solar panels, powering its farm and community. A smooth development process made this an easy decision for an organization committed to energy efficiency and healthy farming.

Eichten’s leases the land to New Energy Equity, who partners with local subscribers made up of businesses and the nearby school district.

“This was the first one we did in the area so they had a lot of questions to answer and we always got the answers we needed,” said Ed Eichten, co-owner of Eichten’s Hidden Acres. ” We are going to produce a lot of electricity here.”