Review of Community Solar in the United States of America

Abstract

Due to the increase in demand for electricity during the last several decades and the fact that demand has to be satisfied, a number of power plants that work by utilizing fossil fuel sources have been built to satisfy the increased demand for electricity. As a result of the excessive use of fossil fuel sources, global warming and climate change have become serious issues that affect the entire world. The rise of those issues has put pressure on the entire world to switch from the use of fossil fuel sources energy to the use of green sources energy to generate electricity. Out of various renewable energy sources (wind, hydro, geothermal, and biomass), photovoltaics based on free fuel solar energy has emerged as the technology for generating lowest cost electricity. In addition to utility scale solar farms and rooftop solar, community solar benefits flow to multiple customers such as individuals, businesses, nonprofits, and other groups. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of community solar. A new business model of community solar is proposed where a photovoltaic system and battery energy storage system can work as standalone power system. Further cost reduction can be achieved if the standalone local power network works on direct current (DC) in place of alternating current (AC) power.