The Founders Round

Sometimes you get the chance to make a difference and create something lasting, something concrete. Montgomery and Prince George’s County residents in the Pepco area now have that chance. They can join their neighbors in helping to found a community shared solar project that is transforming a landfill in Ft. Washington into a clean energy center. These 200 founders will demonstrate the commitment needed to get the project into the construction phase. Because of their willingness to take a stand, the 200 will turn a solar dream into an actual working project pumping electricity from the sun into our local grid.

The Panorama Solar Project @ Ft. Washington is the first community shared solar project in the utility territory. It’s possible because of the hard work of environmental and clean energy advocates who helped pass legislation in 2015 that enabled the creation of a community shared solar program in Maryland. The program’s goal is to bring solar to everyone, not just the select few who can get a rooftop system. Community, or shared solar, allows residents to subscribe to the power from solar projects in their utility area. No equipment needed. No roof even needed.

Neighborhood Sun is offering residents the chance to subscribe to the project at a rate that is guaranteed to be 5% lower than Pepco’s rate, for a five year term. The project only gets built if it gets fully subscribed. The first major milestone is at the end of July, by which time we need 200 residents to be subscribed in order to show that there is public support for the project. For these original 200, the founders, it’s a chance to save money, help build new solar, and bring local green energy development to Prince George’s County.

The founders we are looking for are the leaders in the movement to fight climate change and air pollution. They are the people who advocate for positive change here in Maryland and at the Federal level. The founders are the early adopters of the green movement -likely the first one in their neighborhood to compost, or to recycle back in the day, to buy wind power or to be members of environmental organizations. They are passionate about making the world better, and cleaning up our little corner of it. Once enrolled, the founders will be the cornerstone of this new shared solar community, the vanguard of this new green energy movement.

I’m proud of the work we’ve done to get this far – to make Maryland one of the nation’s leaders in this innovative new way of participating in the solar revolution. But now we need to make our vision of a better tomorrow a reality of a solar farm today. We need to commit to the Panorama Solar Project @ Ft. Washington and put a 25 acre solar fact on the ground in the middle of Prince George’s County. Two hundred Marylanders need to come together to make this solar project a reality.

– Gary Skulnik, CEO and Founder