Comparison of the demographics of residential rooftop and community solar adopters

Abstract

Rooftop and community solar are alternative product classes for residential solar in the United States. Community solar, where multiple households buy solar from shared systems, could make solar more accessible by reducing initial costs and removing adoption barriers for renters and multifamily building occupants. Here, we test whether existing community solar projects have expanded solar access in the United States. We find that community solar adopters are more likely to live in multifamily buildings than rooftop solar adopters, are more likely to rent, and to a lesser extent tend to earn less income. We do not find that community solar expands access in terms of race. These differences are driven, roughly evenly, by inherent differences between the two solar products and by policies that specifically target low-income community solar adoption. The results suggest that alternative solar products can effectively expand solar access and that policy could augment such benefits.