Community solar is one of the most effective ways real estate can transform unused square footage
(such as large, empty rooftops) into value, while supporting cleaner, more affordable energy supplies
for nearby communities. As nearly half of households and businesses cannot host solar arrays of adequate size on their properties to meet their energy needs, real estate can fill a critical gap in access through community solar.

This is how community solar works: real estate owners rent space, often on rooftops, to solar developers who mount and operate solar arrays. Clean energy is supplied to the grid, and local homes and businesses sign up to use it through the utility, cleaning their energy mix and reducing their utility bill.

STAG Industrial (a Boston-based industrial real estate investment trust) hosts 25.6 megawatts (MW) of solar on its U.S. properties, including 20.7 MW of community solar. With assistance from Black Bear Energy, a commercial buyer’s representative specializing in on-site renewable energy and cleantech services, STAG has completed community solar in Minnesota, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland, with additional projects under construction in New Jersey.

Over the past year, STAG has sought ways to evolve its strategy to provide renewable energy both to tenants and to local communities. Accordingly, the company combines “hosted solar”—in which its generated electricity is either purchased by the utility and distributed locally, or in locations with
community solar programs, residential customers and businesses receive discounted clean electricity— with plans for “amenity solar,” in which its industrial tenants receive green energy to reduce their tenants’ Scope 2 emissions and STAG’s Scope 3 emissions, helping place STAG on a path toward decarbonization in alignment with its Science Based Targets initiative goal.

STAG’s largest array—reportedly the largest community solar project in the country when it came online—is in Hampstead, Maryland. The 9.6 MW system provides clean energy to subscribers in Baltimore and several surrounding counties and is part of Maryland’s community solar program that provides low-cost renewable energy to local homes and businesses. Co-developed by Black Bear Energy and Summit Ridge Energy, the system will generate enough energy to power nearly 1,300 homes.

Community solar faces some barriers, but the outlook overall is positive, according to Black Bear. “REITs should view hosting community solar as one additional option in their toolkit to be net zero. While solar economics really only currently support rooftop community solar (as opposed to ground mounts) in seven states, as more states come to recognize the myriad benefits of community solar, the opportunity to host solar on industrial rooftops will create an incredible opportunity for REITs to tackle a significant portion of their net zero goals and, more importantly, contribute to greening the grid. STAG’s work to date is exemplary and incredibly impressive,” according to Drew Torbin, CEO of Black Bear Energy.

August Williams-Eynon