Alliant Energy® Community Solar frequently asked questions

Alliant Energy® Community Solar program brings together people with a common interest in powering their homes and businesses with solar energy. Not every location is ideal for solar panels, nor is it always easy to install your own. Our community solar program was established to help make solar simple and accessible for everyone. For most of our customers, as an Alliant Energy customer, you can buy subscriptions to blocks of solar to cover up to 100% of your energy usage. Large commercial or industrial customers may be limited based upon the size of the solar garden and the availability of blocks.

With the Alliant Energy® Community Solar program, Alliant Energy builds, owns, and maintains a dedicated community solar garden for the participating subscribers. The renewable energy produced by the solar site is delivered to the grid, where Alliant Energy manages the sale of the energy on the market. All the energy credit is then passed back to all participating subscribers for the life of the project.

Solar blocks are 250-watt increments of the community solar garden. Depending on the size and type of panels used in a solar garden, one solar panel is approximately two solar blocks.

Customers subscribe to blocks allowable per subscriber in the nearest 250-watt increment that meets, not exceeding, their annual average usage. The customer’s most recent 12 months of electric energy consumption will determine average annual usage. If this amount is not representative of the predicted usage, or if the data is unavailable, then Alliant Energy can estimate. 

When combined with other specific tariff offerings, the customer’s subscription may not exceed 100% of the average annual usage outlined in the Alliant Energy® Community Solar Terms & Conditions.

The solar project is a self-funded community program. The subscription fee per solar block is created based on the community solar garden’s actual costs, including land, installation, operating costs, and marketing. Using Alliant Energy resources, we work with our developers to determine the estimated design, location, and prices. These costs are then divided between the solar blocks of a community solar garden.

Marketing efforts inform and ask for customer commitment to a project. The upfront subscription fees are a necessary customer investment to complete the construction. Upfront payment also enables customers to take advantage of the solar bill credits when the community solar garden becomes operational.

We offer a monthly payment plan. However, participating subscribers will not receive the solar bill credit until paid in full, and the solar garden is operational.

This program is open to all Alliant Energy electric customers, depending on their location. Solar gardens located in Wisconsin are for Wisconsin Power and Light (WPL) electric customers. Solar gardens located in Iowa are for Interstate Power and Light (IPL) electric customers. The program is optional for customers who choose to reduce their electric bills through a subscription to the Alliant Energy® Community Solar program and are in good standing with the Company.

Yes, you can still participate. There will be a separate service agreement on your bill for Community Solar’s monthly kilowatt-hours (kWh) generated. Because Community Solar credits are separate, customers can be on any rate or budget billing.

To participate in the program, customers cannot be in arrears with the Company at the time of enrollment.

No. Participants do not own the solar garden. This program provides an opportunity for the participant to reduce  their electric bills through a subscription to the Alliant Energy® Community Solar Program instead of direct ownership of a solar installation.

The energy generated is distributed onto the Alliant Energy power grid. It offsets electricity that fossil fuels and other sources would have generated.

The Alliant Energy® Community Solar program allows you to invest in solar energy with others in your community. All costs of the solar garden installation are shared. The program allows you to invest upfront at an amount that works for your budget and receive a bill credit from a community solar garden located in your geographic area. 

Compare this program with a private system: The average system size for individuals installing solar panels on a home is 5 to 15 kilowatts (kW). To build a private system, you will need to have a contract with independent solar installers for the total installation cost. For 10 kW of panels, on average, the installation and system together can run between $30,000 and $40,000, according to the Center for Sustainable Energy before tax credits and incentives. You and the installer can agree upon a payment schedule with multiple years of monthly payments. At the same time, you may still have an electric bill.  

Any government tax incentives for renewable energy have been incorporated in calculating our solar block subscription fee. Participants would not be able to claim on your state or federal taxes.

The bill credits for participating customers are an offset to the original subscription purchase price and would not be considered taxable income.

Subscribers should consult with their tax advisor to confirm the appropriate tax treatment.

The sun's energy is free, but there is a cost of equipment used to convert that free energy into usable electric energy. The community solar garden’s actual costs include the land, installation, operating costs, and marketing.

You are buying solar blocks of production for a given site for 20 years with community solar. With the Alliant Energy Second Nature program, you are buying from a mix of renewable energy sources dedicated to Second Nature, which may change over time along with the premium price. Billing will allow for participation in both, but customers are limited total participation to 100% of their usage. 

Yes, but customers can only purchase solar blocks based on their Alliant Energy electric usage (annual kilowatt-hours).

The subscriptions directly fund the solar garden’s construction, so it is an additive part of the Clean Energy Blueprint in which customers can achieve their own green goals.

For additional information about Alliant Energy’s Clean Energy Blueprint, please visit alliantenergy.com/cleanenergyblueprint. 

You determine how green do you want to be. Customers can purchase a single solar block or the maximum of solar blocks that do not exceed their average annual kilowatt-hours (kWh) or anywhere in between. Once a community solar site is identified, 25-35% (IPL) or up to 1,000 (WPL) of the garden’s solar blocks will be available specifically for residential customers. No single subscriber may have more than 60% of the solar blocks available.

We have created calculators to help customers determine how many blocks are equal to their renewable energy  goals. Calculators can be found on each solar project's webpage.

Two fees are part of the program: administration and subscription. Before community solar subscribers can receive bill credits, all upfront administration and subscription fees must be paid in full.

• Administration/enrollment fee is a one-time, upfront non-refundable fee. The amount will vary based on solar garden location.

• Subscription fee is the calculated upfront subscription fee per solar block. The amount will vary for each solar garden.

The Alliant Energy® Community Solar program uses an online subscription form. Participants agree to terms and conditions to become enrolled in the Community Solar program.

Once information is received, our staff will confirm your eligibility. If there are any questions, you will be contacted by an Alliant Energy representative. Alliant Energy will use the first-come, first-served approach to processing applications and assign each participating subscriber to an Alliant Energy Community Solar garden. In the event available capacity is limited, Alliant Energy may give preference to subscriptions from customers located in the same region as an Alliant Energy Community Solar garden is located.

With a one-time administration/enrollment fee, solar block subscription fees will be sent separately from your monthly electric statement.

Community solar credits will appear on your electric bill once the solar site has been operational for one month.

This how-to guide will help you find your kWh in My Account.

Two options are available to pay the upfront fees. Subscribers will not receive the solar bill credit until paid in full, and the community solar garden is operational.

• Full payment option - In addition to the administrative/enrollment fee, the full upfront subscription fee will be billed to the subscriber in the preceding month.

• Monthly payment option - If the customer does not want to pay the full upfront subscription fee, a monthly payment option is available.

Payments can be made in several different ways, from postal mail payments to using your My Account. Please visit alliantenergy.com for additional payment options.

If paying with a credit card, there is a $4,000 limit per transaction and/or per month for residential customers and a $10,000 limit per transaction and/or per month for business customers.

If the maximum subscription capacity is met, you will be added to a waitlist. As blocks come available after the solar garden’s operational date, customers will be contacted for the opportunity to subscribe.

When a new community solar garden is available, electric customers on the waitlist will be offered the opportunity to subscribe.

Suppose there are subscriptions available after the first year that the community solar garden is in service. In that case, the upfront subscription fee will be reduced by a fraction in proportion to how much of the garden's expected useful life has already passed. For example, suppose a customer subscribes in the second year. In that case, they will pay 95 percent of the full subscription fee because it is estimated that they will receive 95 percent of the garden's bill credit over the next 19 years.

Monthly credits will be issued when a subscriber is paid in full, and the community solar garden is operational. Bill credits will be based on the previous month’s solar production and applied proportionately to your electric bill.

Planned or unplanned outages may affect the total monthly amount of kWh energy produced and bill credit issued by the Alliant Energy Community Solar Facility.

Depending on the number of blocks subscribed by a customer, Alliant Energy allocates that percentage of the kilowatts (kW) capacity to the total monthly amount of the kilowatt-hours (kWh) energy produced by the Alliant Energy Community Solar garden. Due to the nature of solar, solar production is impacted by the seasons and the weather. Below is an example of the estimated solar energy production over the year.

Subscribers who are also participating in budget or fixed amount billing will receive bill credits but not monthly. Customers participating in budget or fixed amount billing may see a difference in their bill calculation.

For budget billing, subscribers will not see monthly impacts to their bill, but it should impact their billed amount every six months when the account reviews.

For fixed amount billing, subscribers will not see any benefits from community solar for a year. They will see the impacts on their following contract amount a year later.

Customers can visit a dashboard for daily solar production information when the solar garden becomes operational and generates power.

The dashboard will show:

• the amount of energy being produced.
• the total over the life of the solar garden.
• a dynamic solar production graph that shows solar production in 15-minute intervals, daily, weekly, monthly, annually, and lifetime.

The energy equivalents section shows the conversion of greenhouse gas emission numbers into different equivalent units. The calculation methods can be found on the EAP website:

https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gases-equivalencies-calculator-calculations-and-references

The estimated payback period for subscribers is dependent on the project costs, bill credit rates, and solar production. See project-specific information for the estimated solar payback period.

Subscribers continue to pay their utility bills in the same way as before enrollment in the program. The solar production bill credit will display separately and include the previous month’s solar production multiplied by the current bill credit rate. The credit amount will reduce your overall monthly electric bill.

Suppose the solar production bill credit exceeds the amount owed in any billing period. In that case, the excess portion of the solar production credit will be carried forward to your next month’s bill.

Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) are non-tangible commodities. They represent proof that 1 MWh of electricity was generated from a renewable energy resource and was then fed into the shared system of power lines that transport energy.

The RECs associated with the Alliant Energy Community Solar garden will be bundled and retired on behalf of all subscribers annually (Jan – Dec) and tracked in the Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (MRETS). The retirement of the RECs is on behalf of all subscribers of the facility but not transferred to individuals.

The retirement can take several months to process, so we plan to inform our subscribers of the RECs in April of each year of the previous year’s performance.

So what does this mean for our subscribers? Individual residents and businesses can make renewable statements they are reliant on the environmental attributes and benefits associated with the solar garden and the RECs issued. Example: Subscribing businesses that are offsetting their overall energy usage with renewable energy will make a renewable claim toward their company’s sustainability goals.

Yes, on an annual basis, but monthly solar credits will not match each month. 

If you move to a different location in the same state and remain an Alliant Energy electric customer, you can keep your solar blocks with you. If you move outside of the Alliant Energy service area, there are several options:

• Transfer your solar blocks to the new owner, or

• Transfer to an extended family member in the same service area, or

• Give the solar blocks to a local non-profit as a gift, or

• Request a pro-rated subscription refund.

The original subscriber must notify Alliant Energy within 90 days of no longer being a customer of your address, as described in the Terms & Conditions. After 90 days, a subscriber’s Community Solar contract will be considered canceled and not eligible for a refund of the pro-rata share. Contact Alliant Energy Customer Support to assist with any changes.

Note: A Subscription that has been transferred is not eligible for a refund. For recipients of solar blocks from donation or transfer, if these solar blocks then become available through cancellation or transfer, they will be donated to the Alliant Energy Hometown Care Energy Fund.

If a subscriber is deceased:

• If there is a surviving spouse, the existing account can be updated with the spouse’s information. Credits will continue to be issued to that account.

• If the estate is in probate, court documents will need to be provided to grant the power to oversee the estate to the Personal Representative (WI) or Executor (IA). Once we have received the documentation, the Personal Representative or Executor can request to transfer (see criteria) or cancel the subscription for a pro-rated refund.

• Anyone other than the surviving spouse who contacts Alliant Energy regarding community solar will need to provide specific documentation per Alliant Energy’s Confidentiality Policy before any actions can be taken.

If the subscriber no longer has an account in their name (but still lives at premise):

• The original subscribing customer must contact Alliant Energy to request a transfer to the premise’s new account.

Note: A Subscription that has been transferred is not eligible for a refund. For recipients of solar blocks from donation or transfer, if these solar blocks then become available through cancellation or transfer, they will be donated to the Alliant Energy Hometown Care Energy Fund.

A participating subscriber, who is paid in full, can cancel their subscription and receive a refund of a pro-rata share of the upfront subscription fee for only the following conditions:

• The subscriber is moving or relocating outside Alliant Energy’s service territory,

• The subscriber ceasing to be a customer of Alliant Energy for other reasons, or

• For reasons outside the control of the subscriber (referred to as a force majeure event in the terms and conditions).

The solar project is a self-funded community program. The upfront subscription fees are used to pay for the solar garden’s land, installation, operating costs, and marketing. For this reason, cancellations are limited to established situations.

Subscribers who do not meet the cancellation criteria will not be able to receive a refund.

The original subscriber must notify Alliant Energy within 90 days of no longer being a customer to their original address, as described in the community solar terms and conditions. After 90 days, a subscriber’s Community Solar contract will be considered canceled and not eligible for a refund of the pro-rata share.

Alliant Energy has a maintenance and repair budget built into the program to cover repairs. It is possible generation could be reduced in a given month until repairs are completed.

Typically, solar panel manufacturers test their panels to withstand up to 25 mm (1 inch) diameter for hailstones.

The types of solar panels used at an Alliant Energy Community Solar garden can include bifacial panels, monofacial panels, or both. Bifacial panels can collect light on both sides of the panel (front and back). In contrast, monofacial panels only collect light on one side.

Typically, solar panels are made of crystalline silicon-type solar cells along with glass, aluminum housing.

The solar panels are mounted with metal clips that hold the panel’s frame to a racking structure during the solar garden construction.

Alliant Energy’s solar projects can provide essential habitats for pollinators like bees and butterflies.  After each community solar garden is constructed, a native pollinator-friendly mix will be planted.  Alliant Energy will work to ensure the habitat becomes well-established.

Like any solar project, the community solar garden needs regular inspections and maintenance.  Whether planned or unplanned, there will be times when Alliant Energy will need to take the community solar garden offline.  During this time, the solar garden will not generate power.  That may slightly affect your bill credits the following month, but it’s necessary to ensure the solar garden works at its best in the long run.