Community Solar FAQs
Community Solar is a simple solution for customers who want to take part in solar generation without installing solar panels on their home or business. Our program allows eligible customers to subscribe to blocks of a shared solar system at a predetermined maximum rate.
Community Solar offers you a more convenient way to help add solar generation to the electric grid and lock the power generation portion of your bill in place so it won’t be subject to future rate increases while you are subscribed.
A block of solar energy is equivalent to 100 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power. The amount of blocks you can purchase is limited to one half of the average of your monthly usage based on the last 12 months of billing. For example, if your average monthly usage for the last 12 months is 1,300 kWh, one half of that monthly average is 650 kWh, so you would be eligible to purchase up to six (6) 100 kWh blocks of solar energy.
The Community Solar unit (energy center) you subscribe to will go through a construction planning process as subscribers join the program. Once Ameren Missouri formally commits to construction, the options available change. Where the energy center is in this process determines how you can adjust your subscription:
- Prior to construction commitment, you can adjust your blocks up or down or cancel completely with no restrictions.
- Once construction commitment occurs, you can adjust your blocks up or down as long as you remain subscribed to a minimum of one (1) – 100 kWh block.
- If you request additional blocks and none are available, your request will be placed on a wait list.
- At the time of and after construction commitment, you are able to cancel your entire subscription as long as there is a person on the waiting list to take your place or if you move out of the Ameren Missouri service territory.
Each subscribed block of solar energy will be billed monthly at the Community Solar rate ($.1391/kWh), which is $13.91 per 100 kWh block. This will be a separate line item on your monthly energy statement as shown above. The same amount of kWh (number of blocks enrolled times 100 kWh) will be deducted from your monthly usage before your regular rate is applied.
If you would like more information about statement charges, visit the Understanding Your Statement page. Or contact us at solar@ameren.com to talk with one of our energy experts.
Signing up is easy. You can log in to your Ameren Missouri account (or create an online account if you don't have one and select "Programs" from your account dashboard), go to www.ameren.com/CommunitySolar
or call 800.552.7583.
Terms and Conditions are available here.
One great benefit of our program is that the Solar Generation Charge won’t be subject to future rate increases while you are subscribed. The Total Facilities Charge is not associated with the actual solar plant and will continue to be subject to rate adjustments, as will the charges associated with your usage that is not provided through the Community Solar program.
At the present time, the cost of Community Solar will increase the amount you pay; it is possible that it could be a cost savings, at some point in the future, if the regular Ameren Missouri rate increases above the Community Solar rate. Presently, the Community Solar rate is approximately 2 cents/kWh higher in Summer and 6 cents/kWh higher in Winter than the 1M R-Basic rate.
When enrolling to participate in a new facility, customers pay a $25/block fee to support construction costs. Customers from a waitlist who are joining a facility that has already been built do not pay this fee.
Prior to Ameren Missouri's commitment to construction, your fee will be refunded if you cancel your enrollment either because you no longer wish to participate or because blocks from an existing facility become available and are offered to you.
Ameren Missouri retires the Renewable Energy Credits on behalf of enrolled customers.
No. There is not a feasible way to direct electricity to a particular property. Electricity is produced and added to the grid. Each electricity user pulls from the grid.
While you are purchasing blocks of power produced by the panels, you do not own the panels themselves.
Ameren Missouri retires the RECs on behalf of enrolled customers.
Community Solar is a subscription program in which you purchase blocks of power from an Ameren Missouri solar energy center. Pure Power is a REC purchasing program through which customers support Missouri and Midwest wind farms. We are not accepting new participants in our Pure Power program, but information about the program is available at amerenmissouri.com/purepower.
The Community Solar program term is 25 years
Through this program, you are purchasing blocks from a community project. To be eligible for the federal tax rebate, you must install panels directly on your property.
If you move out of our service territory, you are not obligated to fulfill the contract period. If you move within our service territory, your contract will follow you to your new residence.
Most customer-owned generation operates under Ameren Missouri's Net Metering tariff and net metering accounts are not eligible to enroll in Community Solar. However, some businesses have generation that operates under Ameren Missouri's Qualifying Facilities tariff and those accounts are allowed to participate in Community Solar.
If no blocks are available, you will be placed on our wait list. Then, if blocks from an existing facility become available, you will be automatically enrolled up to the number of blocks you requested and receive an e-mail notifying you of the change.
No. The customers who subscribe to our Community Solar are paying the cost of the program.
The $25/participation fee is a contribution in aid of construction fee. It will be used to defray some of the costs of building the solar energy center. The targeted amount is $25 times the number of blocks available. The construction of the Community Solar plant will not commence until there is a sufficient number of participants committed to build the energy center.
The first solar facility is located at Lambert St. Louis International Airport near Missouri Bottom Road, positioned to avoid any glare hazard to incoming or outgoing planes. The second facility is located in Montgomery County, Missouri.
The first solar facility, with just under 1 MW-AC of capacity, is located on an 11-acre site. The second solar facility has a capacity of approximately 6 MW-AC.
A name change on the Ameren Missouri account will result in termination of the enrollment. If the name on the account changes as a result of the unfortunate event of passing away while a subscriber, (i.e. to a surviving spouse), the Community Solar enrollment will be terminated, but the new account holder will be eligible to enroll again or be placed on a waitlist depending on whether Community Solar capacity is available at that time
There is the potential for your Community Solar rate to decrease if additional solar facilities are added to the program at a lower per-block construction cost. All participants will have the same Community Solar rate, so a rate decrease would be applicable across all Community Solar energy centers.
The first facility is comprised of 370 Watt modules, commercial three-phase string inverters and fixed-tilt racking tables.
Prior to the Community Solar energy center being committed to construction, your subscription can be cancelled or adjusted and there is no minimum participation period. Once Ameren Missouri commits to construct a new facility and your blocks are enrolled, you are subject to a 2 year minimum participation period. You are able to cancel before 2 years if you move out of the service territory or if there are wait list blocks available to take your place.
No. Community Solar is available only to 1M R-Basic, 1M R-DayNight, and 2M rates. If you are currently on an optional rate, you would need to convert to one of the eligible rates to enroll. If you enroll in Community Solar now and request an optional rate in the future, your Community Solar enrollment will be cancelled at that time.
When I enroll in Community Solar, do I become either a net metering or qualifying facility customer?
No. Net metering and qualifying facility tariffs only apply to generation that is connected and installed at a customer's site.
