Solarize Charlotte-Mecklenburg to launch in June
For Mecklenburg County homeowners, nonprofits and businesses looking to install solar panels, local leaders hope a new program helps save money.
Next month, the Solarize Charlotte-Mecklenburg campaign is set to launch. The program aims to lower the cost of installing solar through large-group purchasing. As Charlotte's Chief Sustainability Officer Heather Bolick explains, the more homes, nonprofits and businesses participate, the order gets bigger and the cost per panel decreases.
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'By getting a lot of people to go at once together in this campaign, we can bring down the cost for everyone,' she said.
Everyone in Mecklenburg County is eligible to participate, though the campaign is also targeting low and moderate income households.
Bolick explains the program will use the $777k in Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant funding it received last year, from the Department of Energy to help make solar accessible to those who can benefit the most from energy savings.
'We're going to go out to homes that have already had weatherization done, have already had health and safety repairs done, so that they are solar ready,' she said.
The program is separate from the statewide Energize NC program, funded through the federal Solar for All program, though Bolick said the city and county hope to work with the Solar for All coalition to find ways for multi-family residents and those who live in homes less suited to solar installations to benefit from community solar or other alternative models.
Charlotte has a goal to install 600MW of renewable energy within the city by 2035. According to the Strategic Energy Action Plan dashboard, there's currently about 30MW of solar installed throughout the city.
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