Solar Commons Demonstration Project 

Recipient of the 2009 US Green Building Council Legacy Award

The Solar Commons Demonstration Project was chosen by the US Green Building Council (USGBC) as a 2009 Legacy Project.   Each year the USGBC chooses a Legacy Project as a gift to the city that hosts the USGBC's annual convention, Greenbuild.  In 2009, Greenbuild is in Phoenix.  Legacy Projects represent sustainable solutions to the challenge of living in harmony with our environment.  They are meant to serve low income, inner city groups; to have an educational aspect; and to be community supported.  The Solar Commons Demonstration Project is honored to be chosen as the USGBC's 2009 Legacy Project

Building the Demonstration Project

In 2009, with the generous support of the USGBC and other sponsors, the Solar Commons Team began designing a 10kW demonstration project.  The system will produce an estimated 18,300 kWh of green electricity.  This renewable energy will displace 27,450 pounds of annual carbon dioxide production that contributes to climate change.  It will annually produce $1,830 in revenue to the Public Trust Owner, of which $183 will be reserved for maintenance expenses and an estimated $1,647 will be available for investment in energy saving improvements on low-income housing.  This initial demonstration project can be scaled up to around 30kW to efficiently produce many more times the energy benefits noted here.  Because the pilot project is the basis of our business model for solar commons energy development, the project will continue to benefit nonprofits across the nation as they seek to capture wealth in the fast growing green economy.

The goals of the demonstration project are twofold: Specifically, it shows us how to apply commons principles to own and co-manage solar energy and how to work with our city government, regulatory agencies, and financial institutions to create a community-owned source of green energy income to benefit the city's affordable housing community.  More generally, the project aims are more ambitious: it shows us the opportunities and challenges of working with municipalities and market entities to build and co-manage a green economy that is both efficient and equitable.

The Demonstration Project will be built next to the Arizona Science Center, along the Metro Light Rail in downtown Phoenix.  It will have a split ownership model:

  • Solar Commons Community Trust will own the following assets:
    1. license/easement to use city property and 
    2. the revenue stream that accompanies the contract to sell solar electricity to the adjacent building.  
The Trust will donate the photovoltaic hardware to the City of Phoenix and use part of the revenue stream to pay Phoenix for maintenance and insurance costs on the hardware.
  • The City of Phoenix will own the hardware and the liability.  The city of Phoenix will also "own" the reputation for innovation in green city design.
  • The Trustees will be NewTown, a local nonprofit organization that already serves as the trustee for the city’s only affordable housing land trust.  The land trust is like the Solar Commons trust: it holds common assets on behalf of the community.  Both the Land Trust and the Solar Commons Trust keep the value of their assets circulating back to the community.  The Land Trust holds land assets on which low-income families can buy houses.  The Solar Commons Trust holds renewable energy assets whose value will come back to the communittee too.  Urban land trusts are an important commons sector tool to keep a city’s housing stock affordable to the next generation.  Solar  Commons Community Trusts will likewise support renewable energy improvements on low-income houses, enabling the poor to enjoy the same future benefit of energy savings that will come to upper classes now outfitting their homes with solar energy systems.)   So the pilot project will be mandated for the beneficial use in keeping affordable housing energy bills down in Phoenix.

The Demonstration Project will also serve an educational function.  It sits in a prominent site in downtown Phoenix, next to the city's Science Center, visible from the Light Rail that provides efficient mass transportation to citizens of the sixth largest city in the US.  Through signage and design, Phoenix pedestrians and transit riders will be able to note their city's first Solar Commons.  They will come to understand that it belongs to them, is managed by commons principles, and benefits their city.