Illinois Community Solar Lands Northwestern University As New Customer
June 29th, 2020 by Zachary Shahan[2]
Community solar power* is one of my new favorite things. Well, no, that’s not true — it’s been one of my favorite things for years. The good news is just that it’s been growing strongly.
The news today: The Illinois Community Solar[3] program from Clearway Community Solar[4] just landed Northwestern University[5] as its first major commercial subscriber.
Image courtesy Clearway Community Solar[6]
With its new subscription, Northwestern University is supporting the development of 16 Clearway Community Solar projects. It has committed to an 11.9 megawatt (MW) subscription. The expected reduction in pollution is equivalent to taking 2,934 average cars (not electric cars) off the road.
Clearway has been on a roll lately. The company notes that it is “the largest community solar provider in the US.” Furthermore, in January[7] it closed financing on a $200 million community solar fund, “which will enable the construction of new community solar projects in Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New York.” Illinois has a goal of reaching 25% renewable electricity by 2025. Clearway Community Solar is clearly aimed at doing its part to help get the state there.
*Not familiar with community solar power? Clearway has a good, short description: “Community Solar allows businesses, universities, hospitals, municipalities, and residents alike to support renewable solar power without rooftop panel installations. When rooftop panels are simply not an option due to permitting, historic buildings, shading, or other reasons, Community Solar offers a sustainable solution that equally helps reduce overall electricity costs.”
You can also scroll through our community solar archives[8]. We recently had stories about community solar projects in Florida[9], Colorado[10], New Jersey[11], D.C.[12], Utah[13], and beyond.
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About the Author
Zachary Shahan[20] is tryin’ to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA] — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in this company and feels like it is a good cleantech company to invest in. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort on Tesla or any other company.
References
- ^ Clean Power (cleantechnica.com)
- ^ Zachary Shahan (cleantechnica.com)
- ^ Illinois Community Solar (www.clearwaycommunitysolar.com)
- ^ Clearway Community Solar (www.clearwaycommunitysolar.com)
- ^ Northwestern University (www.northwestern.edu)
- ^ Clearway Community Solar (www.clearwaycommunitysolar.com)
- ^ in January (www.clearwayenergygroup.com)
- ^ our community solar archives (cleantechnica.com)
- ^ Florida (cleantechnica.com)
- ^ Colorado (cleantechnica.com)
- ^ New Jersey (cleantechnica.com)
- ^ D.C. (cleantechnica.com)
- ^ Utah (cleantechnica.com)
- ^ Clearway Community Solar (cleantechnica.com)
- ^ Illinois (cleantechnica.com)
- ^ illinois renewable energy (cleantechnica.com)
- ^ Illinois solar energy (cleantechnica.com)
- ^ Northwestern University (cleantechnica.com)
- ^ universities (cleantechnica.com)
- ^ Posts by Zachary Shahan (cleantechnica.com)