"Community" solar needs community buy-in, which requires meaningful engagement and partnerships. A successful program will reflect shared goals, values, and priorities. The best programs will include partnerships with local non-profits, cities and townships and community leaders.
A strong community solar program will work in tandem with utility-scale clean energy, electric vehicles, and battery storage to reduce harmful carbon pollution from our electric grid.
The solar industry is adding workers nearly 20 times faster than the overall economy. Solar employment has grown by 86 percent in the past five years.1 A strong community solar program will continue this trend and include a pipeline to well-paying, local jobs.
12017 National Solar Job Census
As part of New Jersey community solar projects, Solar Landscape will provide classroom and on the job, solar energy career training in partnership with local non-profit organizations.
For allowing the developer to use their roof space or land, the property owner that hosts the community solar project receives a monthly lease payment for the 20-year term of the project.
Solar Landscape will continue to focus on large, flat commercial rooftops to host community solar projects. By using commercial and industrial properties, we preserve local farmland and greenspace, while protecting local ecosystems, and other natural land.
A neighborhood-scale, clean-energy network can support microgrids that can disconnect from the main grid during blackouts to ensure “the lights stay on”. As extreme weather events are becoming more common, community solar paired with microgrids can help protect people from power disruptions.
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Unlike a home solar panel system, a community solar project isn’t installed on your roof. When you purchase electricity from a community solar project, you are subscribing for a portion of the energy generated by a large solar panel system located elsewhere in your area. You will be paying for access to less expensive, clean solar electricity so that you don’t have to buy electricity at standard utility rates.
Community solar provides its subscribers with immediate, pre-determined guaranteed discounts on their electricity bill. The lock in rate helps customers protect against rising energy prices.
Cost and homeownership can act as barriers to solar energy access. Community solar eliminates the need for upfront purchase or financing of a rooftop system. The cost of building a larger, shared regional solar system is borne by solar developers. Residents subscribe to the electricity the project produces absent long-term contracts, credit checks, or other barriers to entry.
Community solar can help avoid and eventually retire, dirty power plants, which spew harmful toxins and air pollution into the air in your community. This is critical because unhealthy, polluted air disproportionally affects low income households.
Solar Landscape’s Job Training is an online, 40-hour statewide program that prepares individuals from diverse backgrounds for jobs as solar installers. By providing participants with foundational knowledge, certifications and a referral for employment, we’re supporting them in their effort to obtain and keep a job in the local solar industry. The Solar Landscape team is committed to growing our industry and workforce in order to make our communities healthier and more resilient.
Begin Enrollment TodayOur solar installer training is provided at no cost to participants as part of our commitment to the New Jersey Community Solar Pilot Program. Trainings are offered across the state in cooperation with local non-profit organizations.
Solar provides pollution-free, affordable energy to communities all over New Jersey. We want to build up a solar workforce in New Jersey that is competent and qualified to safely build systems that maximize production for the long-term.
2019 was a record year for solar installations in New Jersey. Solar companies need qualified, trustworthy installers to continue the pace of solar deployment in the state. We started a job training program to help fill a real need for qualified installers and accelerate the local solar industry.
Participants who complete the program will have Solar Landscape and our program partners as ongoing resources for additional skills training and industry connections to help trainees grow beyond entry-level if desired.
40 hours of online instruction through local community organizations with certified instructors. Successful completion will result in OSHA 10 certification and NABCEP certification scholarships for exceptional candidates.
Fourty hours of highly structured on-the-job rooftop solar installation training conducted by licensed electricians and NABCEP-certified solar installers. Trainees will tour a completed commercial solar installation job site and an active commercial solar job site.
We've trained students from colleges throughout New Jersey, including:
Montclair State University
Stockton University
Kean University
Stevens Institute of Technology
Le Moyne College
Raritan Valley Community College
Ramapo College of New Jersey
The College of New Jersey