(Oct. 6, 2016) Though the site visits and proposals have been completed, scheduled or are underway for inclusion into the Worcester County Solar Cooperative, organizer Corey Ramsden said new members will be welcome until the end of November.
Originally, October was the deadline to join the cooperative, which gives residents from all areas of the county the opportunity to band together to realize a net savings on installation costs for home-use photovoltaic solar power generation.
The group has grown to 28 members, most of whom are in some stage of the installation process, Ramsden said. Of the 28 members, 21 have had a site visit or have one scheduled, and seven members are reviewing proposals from the Frederick-based installer, Sustainable Energy Systems.
The group formed earlier this year under Ramsden’s guidance through MD Solar, a nonprofit dedicated to encouraging communities to adopt a co-op format for solar panel installations, to develop a request for proposals from solar installers.
Those interested can still visit www.mdsun.org/worcester to register with the co-op. On the site, visitors will find a form requesting several pieces of information, including the address of the home to be outfitted with panels.
Using satellite imagery, the installer will perform a check to see if the home is a good fit for solar generation. Ramsden warned that the images are sometimes out of date, so if the installer reports the home is a poor fit for panels, users may want to consider reviewing commonly available satellite images, like Google maps, of their neighborhood to ensure fair representation of their property.
If the house is a good fit, a site visit is planned from which a proposal is generated, leveraging the buying power of the co-op to bring down the installation price.
Originally, October was the deadline to join the cooperative, which gives residents from all areas of the county the opportunity to band together to realize a net savings on installation costs for home-use photovoltaic solar power generation.
The group has grown to 28 members, most of whom are in some stage of the installation process, Ramsden said. Of the 28 members, 21 have had a site visit or have one scheduled, and seven members are reviewing proposals from the Frederick-based installer, Sustainable Energy Systems.
The group formed earlier this year under Ramsden’s guidance through MD Solar, a nonprofit dedicated to encouraging communities to adopt a co-op format for solar panel installations, to develop a request for proposals from solar installers.
Those interested can still visit www.mdsun.org/worcester to register with the co-op. On the site, visitors will find a form requesting several pieces of information, including the address of the home to be outfitted with panels.
Using satellite imagery, the installer will perform a check to see if the home is a good fit for solar generation. Ramsden warned that the images are sometimes out of date, so if the installer reports the home is a poor fit for panels, users may want to consider reviewing commonly available satellite images, like Google maps, of their neighborhood to ensure fair representation of their property.
If the house is a good fit, a site visit is planned from which a proposal is generated, leveraging the buying power of the co-op to bring down the installation price.