The power company announced Tuesday it was seeking approval of a pilot program that would allow its members to opt-in to receive a dedicated, predetermined amount of solar power each month. Currently, slightly more than 1 percent of members’ power comes from solar energy.
“We’ve had a lot of our folks ask us about solar and wanting us to add it to our regular generation mix, and so we started doing that, and now we have additional folks saying, ‘I’d like to get more of it,” said Matt Faulconer, REC manager of external affairs.
“So this is a way that they can get more than that (one) percent,” he said. “If it is successful, as we think it will be, then maybe we’ll start to add more solar to either our regular generation mix, or we may build additional facilities, offer additional community solar opportunities.”
Faulconer said solar energy will cost REC customers 10.7 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with the current rate of 7.6 cents. Customers who elect to join the program will lock in that rate (for the solar portion of their bill) for the duration of the three-year pilot period.
