Vermont Electric Cooperative outlines community solar program and income-qualified ACRE pilot
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Summary
Andrea Cohen of Vermont Electric Cooperative described the co-op’s community solar program, its financing and siting practices, and an ACRE-funded pilot that enrolled income-qualified households for monthly bill credits.
Andrea Cohen, representing Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC), told the Natural Resources & Energy committee that VEC’s community solar program has operated since 2016 and is intended to provide local renewable energy without shifting costs to nonparticipants.
Cohen described program design choices VEC uses to keep projects "cost effective without cost shift," including competitive procurement of power-purchase agreements (PPAs) and siting near load centers. "It's both of those things," she said, referring to being cost effective and avoiding cost shifts, and added that the co-op negotiates market-based contracts so participating members do not impose higher rates on others.
Cohen reviewed VEC’s existing projects and customer options: three community-solar arrays totaling a bit more than 7 megawatts sited in Alburgh (about 1 MW), Hinesburg (about 1.3 MW) and Grand Isle (about 5 MW). She said 27% of the panels across those projects have been sponsored (sold) to members to date, and that members may buy from one panel up to the amount that covers their full electric bill. VEC does not own the projects; it competitively solicits and negotiates contracts with private developers and works with finance partners to offer upfront-finance options for members.
Cohen described an ACRE (Affordable Community Renewable Energy) program launched with a state appropriation and federal ARPA funding that provided grants to bring community solar to income-qualified households. She said the Legislature in 2021 appropriated $10 million to the Department of Public Service for ACRE, and VEC and a partner secured about $2.7 million to enroll income-qualified customers. Phase 1 used an existing landfill solar project and enrolled about 480 households; enrolled customers receive a $45 monthly bill credit for 60 months.
Cohen said the grant dollars covered upfront enrollment and share costs for enrolled low-income customers. She described the program as meaningful for participants—"for some people, that's a good half of their bill"—and said case-management partners work with recipients to pair bill credits with other efficiency upgrades.
Committee members asked about siting criteria, storage, equity and whether community solar reaches renters and low-income residents. Cohen said VEC prefers to site projects close to load, uses an internal map (red/green/yellow) to identify preferred and discouraged sites, and has limited community-scale storage in place (including a project in North Troy and one in Hinesburg). On inclusion, she said net metering uptake skews toward certain districts, whereas VEC’s community solar and the ACRE pilot reached a broader geographic distribution, and the ACRE pilot specifically targeted income-qualified households via DCF enrollment.
Cohen emphasized transparency and market-based procurement, saying utilities can and should provide input on siting to avoid projects in constrained or otherwise poor grid locations. She also noted ongoing program-management questions: several customer contracts are approaching the 10-year mark and the co-op plans to reassess terms going forward.
No formal committee action or vote on community solar programs occurred at the session; the presentation and Q&A will inform future policy conversations on successor net-metering programs and income-qualified renewables access.
