by N. Jason Pittman, PE, President of Big Sun Solar
CPS Energy just announced a major expansion of its community solar program, and it is worth taking a moment to unpack what this means for customers across the territory. The new program is sized at 50 MWac (alternating current) and is projected to serve around 4,000 customers once it is fully subscribed. That is a significant jump from where things started, and it is a great example of a pilot program proving itself out and earning the chance to scale.
Some background for anyone new to this story: CPS Energy launched its original community solar pilot back in 2018, and Big Sun was selected as the developer for that project. That pilot demonstrated that community solar could work well for CPS Energy customers, and now the utility is building on that success with a program many times larger. The demand is already there too. As of this announcement, roughly 1,800 customers are sitting on the waitlist, which tells you there is real appetite for this kind of program in San Antonio.
The new program is open to residential, commercial, and nonprofit customers of CPS Energy, which widens the pool of people who can take part well beyond what a rooftop-only approach would allow.
Here is how it works. Customers own the solar panels allocated to them rather than leasing them or subscribing to a service. The panels themselves are not on the customer’s roof. They are deployed offsite at a solar facility in a sunny location, where they can operate at peak efficiency without being limited by shading, roof orientation, or structural constraints. Software monitors the production of each customer’s panels and that data feeds directly into CPS Energy’s billing system. Each month, the value of the energy those panels produce shows up as a credit on the customer’s utility bill. It is a simple, transparent process from the customer’s side. You do not have to think about production numbers or do any math. The credit just appears.
This ownership structure is actually what sets this program apart. Community solar has grown into a popular option across the country, but most programs work on a subscription model, where customers pay a recurring fee to receive credits and never actually own anything. This CPS Energy program flips that. Customers own their panels outright, which is a meaningfully different value proposition and one that is still fairly rare in the community solar space nationally.
This ownership model also opens the door for businesses with sustainability goals that have historically been shut out of solar altogether. Most companies do not own the building they operate out of, so rooftop solar was never really on the table for them. With this program, any business that has a CPS Energy account can buy panels and put that generation toward its own sustainability goals, regardless of whether it owns its building. Commercial property owners can take it a step further and join the program to lower energy costs across an entire portfolio of properties rather than a single site. Churches and schools, many of which run into the same ownership and structural hurdles as renters, are able to participate as well.
It is also worth spending a minute on why community solar matters in the first place, because the benefits go well beyond convenience. Not everyone has a roof that works for solar. Age, structural issues, shading, and orientation rule out rooftop systems for plenty of homes and buildings, and this program is a great fit for anyone in that position, since the panels live at a purpose-built site instead of on top of the customer’s building. Renters, who have historically been locked out of going solar, can now participate just like homeowners. If a customer moves to a new address within CPS Energy’s service territory, their credits move with them, so relocating does not mean losing the investment they have made.
One of the biggest challenges with rooftop solar is operations and maintenance. Keeping a system running well means monitoring performance, catching problems early, and paying for repairs, and that is more than most homeowners or businesses want to take on. In this program, O&M is included, so customers do not have to worry about keeping the system operational. CPS Energy monitors performance for the full 20-year contract term, and insurance is included as well. Customers get the benefits of solar ownership without taking on the upkeep and risk that typically comes with an on-site system.
Put it all together and this expansion is a big deal for San Antonio. CPS Energy is taking a program that started small, proved it worked, and is now scaling it into something that can make solar ownership accessible to thousands of customers who could not have gone solar any other way. We are proud of the role Big Sun played in getting this started back in 2018, and we are excited to see the program grow into its next chapter.
Learn more at Big Sun Community Solar.