Solstice executives discuss plans to expand into all states with community solar programs

Solstice has plans to expand into every state with a community solar program and deepen its involvement in states where it is already established.

Steph Speirs, co-founder and CEO of Solstice, told NPM that the company is currently in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Illinois and Minnesota. It plans on growing this footprint into Maryland, Delaware, Maine, Michigan, Rhode Island, Oregon, Virginia, Colorado, Washington D.C., and California.

According to Speirs, the company started out in 2014 as a nonprofit focused on increasing access for low-income households to community solar, but in 2017 spun out a customer services and software company to enroll any kind of household for community solar farms.

“We manage the customers for the life of the project for developers,” Speirs said, explaining that the 2017 spin out was done because they saw a need in the industry to help manage 20-year projects and customers. “That was very much in demand and expanding into those additional states as regulatory markets open is a natural progression for where we’ve been building across the country.”

Right now, Solstice has over 53 community solar projects across the U.S., with plans to grow with the community solar market. Sandhya Murali, co-founder and COO of Solstice, told NPM that the market is expected to “grow significantly” over the next five to seven years. That expected growth is “the driving force motivating our growth and expansion.”

Solstice is excited about places like California, which Murali said is strange that it hasn’t been one of the stronger community solar markets already.

“We’re excited for that program to be redone, and I think everyone is waiting anxiously for that market to open up because I think there will be a lot of demand given the fact that the majority of people can’t do rooftop solar,” she said.

Speirs pointed to a Wood Mackenzie forecast which showed 500 MW of community solar in the state by 2027, even though the first projects likely wouldn’t come online until 2024.

“So, we will see forecasted fast growth in California depending on how the program rules come out,” she said.

Similarly, New Mexico is another market Solstice has kept an eye on. So far, Solstice has done groundwork partnership building over the past year in advance of the new Community Solar Program opening up. Murali explained the interest there is due to strong low-income incentives and requirements to be awarded in the program.

“I think both of those states are on our radar,” she said.

However, Arizona is further out. Speirs said that the state filed its community solar program proposal and had promising carveouts for low-to-moderate income (LMI) customers and consolidated billing considerations, but it also proposed that the RECs be owned by the utility. This resulted in the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) not approving the proposal.

“So now we’re going back and forth where CCSA puts forth proposals in response to the Arizona Public Service (APS) proposal for different ownership models,” Speirs said, adding that this has hung up the program design phase.

In other states, Speirs said developers are more optimistic about programs in Michigan and Ohio where a landgrab has begun.

But there is slower progress in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in terms of pushing their program design forward, Speirs stated.

“Having a lot of experience across different states with community solar programs, we [look for] details in the program design like LMI qualification standards or the process for customer disclosures or how crediting is going to be implemented by utilities,” she said. “These real-life daily variations in program design are what make programs successful or not.”

Solstice also has projects expected to go online later this year in Illinois. Speirs said November 2022 new applications for the next block of Illinois’ adjustable block program were accepted, though the outcome of the application process has not yet been announced. The long-term outlook for Illinois “is really strong” due to recent legislation that paved the way for additional megawatts to be installed than previously included in the first block.

Murali added that the solar projects in Illinois are in partnership with Reactivate and are expected to energize in 4Q23. There will be about 12 MW to 15 MW of capacity in total.

Other states that have traditionally been large community solar markets, such as New York and Massachusetts, have seen regulatory slow down. Speirs referenced another Wood Mackenzie forecast that showed these states took a tip in 2022 due to interconnection issues, developer supply chain constraints and inflationary pressures, which pushed many projects into 2023.

“There’s a lot of activity that we’re now talking to developers about, where things looked stagnant in 2022,” she said, adding that 2022 for community solar was the first down year for the industry.

Looking ahead, Murali said New Mexico will be a big state for Solstice in the next year. Solstice also plans on doubling down on more opportunities in New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois.

“Those are our three biggest markets right now,” she said, though nodded to the New Jersey program which has been in pilot up until now. “Everyone is anxiously awaiting the permanent program. We are active in New Jersey and will have a project there that energizes this year too. Those are near-term states we are excited about entering and deepening our presence in.”

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers in February.


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