Sussex Solar Gardens
Welcome to Sussex Solar Gardens – the first community-shared solar system in New Jersey. Created in 2019, this community solar project allows 17 families to obtain solar energy produced locally to help offset their electric use.
Community solar benefits those who want to go solar but don’t have a roof facing south or don’t want to cut down their trees (among other reasons). An off-site shared solar system provides a way for those families to purchase as many solar panels as they need and benefit from the solar energy produced.
The local electric utility (Sussex Rural Electric Cooperative) agreed to purchase the solar energy from Sussex Solar Gardens and credit each member’s monthly electric bill in proportion to their ownership of the solar system. We leased land at a local farm for installation of the system, and the solar power flows into the grid. Each member is still connected to the grid so they receive power continuously and their solar benefit is simply calculated on their electric bills. The size of our community solar system is limited to 156 panels which produce 50 KW of electricity and result in about 63,000 kwh of clean electricity per year.
Our members own from one to 25 solar panels (at an initial cost of about $1,000 per panel) and they receive federal tax credits, accelerated depreciation, and annual income from the solar system. Those benefits combined with their monthly electric savings should enable members to pay back their initial investment in about 8 years.
WITH COMMUNITY SOLAR YOU ARE HELPING YOURSELF, YOUR NEIGHBORS, YOUR COMMUNITY, YOUR NATION, AND YOUR PLANET !
Sussex Solar Gardens has created the first community-shared solar system in New Jersey to provide an opportunity for our neighbors and local residents to obtain solar energy produced locally to help offset their electric use.
