Saving Homes & Businesses Thousands on Energy Bills

greener, cleaner power

Community Solar Possibilities

Are you looking for a way to save money on your energy bills without having to install solar panels on your rooftop? Renovus Solar’s community solar project is the answer. Our community solar projects are designed to provide cheaper, cleaner energy solutions by serving households around local, centrally located solar farms. By participating in community solar, you can meet your energy needs and eliminate your electricity bill while owning decades of greener, cleaner power. Plus, we offer unparalleled flexibility. For example, you can take your benefits with you when you move or resell them to anyone in the region. Whatever your needs are, we’ll find a custom solar solution for you at Renovus. Contact our Ithaca, NY-based office for a quote today.

Partner with us to create a community powered by the sun.

What Makes a Solar Farm

Solar farms are built with a few main materials: the racking, panels, inverters, and transformers. All these components work together to generate clean, renewable power that can be safely and efficiently transferred into the grid.

First, solar farms are made of large ground-mounted solar racks that hold thousands of solar panels. These steel and aluminum racks are traditionally pounded 5-6 feet into the ground and affixed to the land without the use of concrete. This allows a solar farm to be decommissioned at the end of its life, returning the land to its natural state with little to no impact whatsoever.

Second, solar panels are affixed to these racks using solar rack rails and spring-loaded bolts. Panels are arranged and interconnected in what is called a string. A string of panels can consist of as few as six and as many as 40 solar panels, depending on the layout.

Third, these strings of panels are connected to a series of solar inverters. These solar modules create Direct Current (DC) power. This DC power is converted into standard Alternating Current(AC) power with an inverter onsite. AC power is the most common type used for residential and commercial consumption, allowing it to be fed directly into your home to offset your electric bill or back onto the grid.

Lastly, all the inverters are wired directly into a utility meter and transformer owned by the utility company or grid operator. These pieces of equipment can measure the total output of the solar farm and help the farm itself be safely connected to the grid.

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Who Owns the Farms

Solar power is a useful resource for anyone who uses electricity. For that reason, nearly every entity you can think of, from individual homeowners to the utility itself, can benefit from installing a solar farm.

Utility Companies

Presently, solar power is the cheapest form of energy on the planet. For that reason, utility companies all over the country are developing solar farms to drive down the cost of their power. In 2018, what’s referred to as “utility-scale” solar development rose 1000% in NYC alone.

Businesses

Large businesses often construct solar arrays to help offset their sizeable electric demand. Businesses in NYS can build solar farms up to 5MW in size to help bring down their electrical demand and save money. While this type of development is far less common, companies across the state are starting to catch up to utility companies and deploy large renewable installations.

Subscribers

Although subscription-based ownership isn’t a new concept in New York, its popularity is growing due to the convenience and accessibility it offers to consumers. However, it is worth noting that savings are typically only 5%, a long wait period is common, and developers may cancel service without notice.

Homeowners

Lastly, there are community-owned solar farms. With community-owned solar farms, individual homes own the panels on the farm and all the power produced by them. This decentralized ownership model provides the most significant financial benefit for homes in that area and allows customers only to purchase as large of a system as they need to offset their costs.

energy generation

Buy A Piece of a Community Solar Farm!

Community Solar is a popular approach to generating solar energy, and Renovus makes it accessible to everyone. With our community solar farms, the energy accrues credits that are applied to your bill, resulting in a zeroed-out electricity bill and additional savings. The beauty of community solar is that it is available to anyone who pays a utility bill, regardless of property ownership or condition. Whether you rent, have shading on your property, an aging roof, or limited space, we have a solution that will work for you.

Our solar farms are strategically located on perfect land, ensuring ideal exposure and conditions for energy generation. In fact, our community solar panels often provide more energy than those installed on individual roofs. This means that even homeowners who previously couldn’t go solar now have the opportunity to benefit from a solar energy system.

If you’re ready to claim your spot in a community solar farm, our team is here to guide you through a free quote.

How Community Solar Works

Community solar is exciting, affordable, and accessible to anyone who pays an electric bill. Since Renovus rolled out community solar ownership for New York solar customers in 2016, we have embarked on a relentless journey of educating consumers about their choices while going solar.

Solar farms are large aggregated projects where multiple homes and businesses own shares of a larger solar project. Renovus develops solar farms as small as 100kW and as large as 2.5MW. Renovus’ average solar project can service about 25-50 homes in that utility area.

These solar projects are developed and built in areas with an ideal solar resource that will produce around 1200kWh per kW, or at about 93-95% of the total solar resource available in that location. Compared to some on-site systems, community solar can be 10-15% more efficient than a roof-mounted solar system, helping you get more bang for your buck.

A solar farm is developed in a location, and its solar power is aggregated on one “host meter” that helps Renovus and the utility keep track of the farm’s production. This meter is connected to the grid, just like any power plant. You own a share of this total power production and get credit for whatever percentage of the farm you own.

RC REmote Crediting

Short of running a dedicated wire from the farm to your doorstep, there is no way to guarantee that any given electron you are using at your home came from your solar farm. Fortunately, that doesn’t matter.

Remote net metering (RNM) is an agreement between the Public Service Commission and our utility companies. It allows customers who generate their electricity from alternative energy systems, such as solar, to transfer power they do not use back into the grid in exchange for credits on their utility bills.

The amount of energy credits generated is directly associated with the amount of energy produced by any farm. The system used to calculate these credits is the Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER) Value Stack. Every farm’s value stack is different, but you can generally expect energy reimbursement at around $.08-.11/ kWh, depending on your utility company and the farm’s location.

This is huge for residential and commercial customers alike. Using this “digital energy,” you can use a solar farm to offset your bill and zero out your electrical expenses. With this type of metering, you also can maintain a great deal of flexibility by being able to use solar at less-than-ideal locations or move and transfer credits to your new home!

Financing Your Piece of the Solar Farm

Community Solar is a cost-effective, flexible way to use solar power to eliminate electricity bills. Using RNM is a slightly different method of deploying solar. Still, when a customer cannot go solar on their property, the overall financial returns of owning a share of a solar farm are incredibly compelling.

Generally speaking, most of our clients choose to finance a solar purchase. The goal in these scenarios is selecting a loan program whose monthly payment is lower than your electricity bill before going solar. Renovus helps its customers test the market to find the best options available. Still, we’ve also negotiated best-in-class loan programs with financial institutions such as M&T Bank, Alternatives Federal Credit Union, and Tompkins Trust Company.

When a customer finances a solar farm purchase, they often see monthly savings of 20-30% through the life of the loan and a 100% offset of electrical costs when the loan has been paid off. Our systems are guaranteed for 25 years, and most community solar clients will see savings north of $22,500 over the life of their system!

Customer Stories

Zaga - 7.56kW - Solar Farm 3

Zaga found Renovus after they heard of NY’s first-ever solar farm installed in Ulysses. She requested a free quote, and our team connected her with a local credit union to get her financing. All said and done, she now pays half her old utility bill and owns her own solar array. She now has 7.56kW installed on that farm in Ulysses, which produces 110% of her energy needs every year.

Jane - 6.1kW - Solar Farm 1

Jane met Renovus through a Southern Tier Solar program at an event in Elmira, NY in 2015. She had long been thinking about solar, but community solar was never an option. Seizing the local, regional, and national incentives, Jane purchased a 6.1kW system that could power her home.

“Their team came to my hometown and educated everyone on how community solar worked. It was great. After some more conversations and analysis, we realized it was a can’t-miss investment.” – Jane

Richard - 12.2kW - Solar Farm 2

Richard – 12.2kW – Solar Farm 2

Richard is an Ithaca resident who reached out to Renovus after our first community solar farm was offered back in 2013. We installed a 12.2kW system at our second solar farm in Mecklenburg in 2015 that powered his entire home with a surplus!

“Working with Renovus was great. Their office is just a few miles from here, and the farm is just a few miles from that. The farm is a perfect fit for my needs.” – Richard

Tom - 11.22kW - Solar Farm 5

Tom is an environmental activist from Aurora, NY, who met Renovus through some employee references and community events about sustainability. As he learned more about the company, he realized going solar was a smart investment AND great for the environment.

When Renovus announced it was expanding its original farm in Ulysses to nearly double its size, Tom jumped on board. Now, he is the proud owner of an 11.22kW system that covers all his energy costs and makes his home significantly less impactful on the local environment.

Meet Your Solar Energy Company

About Renovus

Our NYS Solar Farms

Solar Farm 24

Horseheads, NY
Pre-Construction
678 kW total

Solar Farm 13

Watkins Glen, NY
Completed in 2019
340kW total

Solar Farm 23

Berkshire, NY
Completed in 2021
220kW total

Solar Farm 12

Candor, NY
Completed in 2019
340kW total

Solar Farm 22

Hannibal, NY
Completed in 2021
340kW total

Solar Farm 11

Candor, NY
Completed in 2019
200kW total

Solar Farm 21

Horseheads, NY
Completed in 2021
340kW total

Solar Farm 10

Spencer, NY
Completed in 2019
70kW total

Solar Farm 20

Bath, NY
Completed in 2021
340kW total

Solar Farm 9

Homer, NY
Completed in 2018
220kW total

Solar Farm 19

Erin, NY
Completed in 2021
330kW total

Solar Farm 8

Catlin, NY
Completed in 2018
1.2MW total

Solar Farm 18

Erin, NY
Completed in 2021
340kW total

Solar Farm 6

Orange, NY
Completed in 2017
200kW total

Solar Farm 17

Beaver Dams, NY
Completed in 2021
340kW total

Solar Farm 5

Ulysses, NY
Completed in 2016
500kW total

Solar Farm 16

Oswego, NY
Completed in 2020
250kW total

Solar Farm 3

Ulysses, NY
Completed in 2016
360kW total

Solar Farm 15

Campbell, NY
Completed in 2020
340kW total

Solar Farm 2

Enfield, NY
Completed in 2016
400kW total

Solar Farm 1

Enfield, NY
Completed in 2016
225kW total

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Take the first step towards a sustainable and cost-effective energy solution today. Contact us at 607-277-1777 today!

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Renovus Solar

1520 Trumansburg Rd
Ithaca, NY 14850

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Phone: 607-277-1777

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Email: info@renovussolar.com