Alliant Energy® Community Solar – Cedar Rapids FAQ

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 4.5-megawatt community solar garden, so there are 18,000 solar blocks available for subscription. 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.

When enrollment begins, 25% of the solar blocks will be available specifically for residential customers (4,500 blocks). No single subscriber may have more than 60% of the solar blocks available (10,800 blocks).

We have created a calculator to help you determine how many blocks are equal to your renewable energy goals.

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

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

• Enrollment fee is a one-time, upfront, non-refundable fee of $35.00.
• Subscription fee is the calculated upfront fee of $291.00 per solar block. This amount is based on the solar garden’s actual land, installation, operating costs, and marketing. (Note: The $291.00 block price has been adjusted to include incentives made available by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act).

The Alliant Energy® Community Solar program allows our customers to purchase solar blocks to be transferred to another Alliant Energy electric customer or the Alliant Energy Hometown Care Energy Fund. Customers who also subscribe to the Alliant Energy Community Solar program can purchase additional blocks beyond annual usage for donation purposes only.

Alliant Energy offers two options for individual donors who wish to designate their gift of solar.

1. A donation to Hometown Care allocates the monthly bill credits to the energy fund for the 20-year life of the program. The Hometown Care Energy Funds go directly to your neighbors in need, administered by local community action programs that know their communities best. Visit Alliant Energy - Hometown Care Energy Fund for more information about the program.
2. A donation to your choice of a non-profit organization or individual that once paid in full, we transfer the solar block and the monthly bill credits directly to the Alliant Energy electric customer. Recipients of the donation must be Alliant Energy electric customers in the originating state (Iowa or Wisconsin).

To donate solar blocks, customers complete a donation enrollment form.

Alliant Energy processes subscriber enrollments and donation applications in the order received based on online submission time and date stamp. While there is still capacity available in an Alliant Energy Community Solar garden, our internal teams will verify participation and contact the recipient. We will inform the donating customer of confirmation, after which they will be billed for administration/enrollment and subscription fees. In the event of ineligibility or any other reason for denial of designation, Alliant Energy will contact the donor. If Alliant Energy cannot reach the donor, the enrollment will be canceled.

Once payment has been received, donating customers will receive a receipt of full payment, and the solar blocks and the associated bill credits will be transferred to the designated organizations or individuals.

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 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.

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.

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.

*Does not include one-time non-refundable $35 enrollment fee.
**Amount includes degradation over the 20-year program.

Depending on the number of blocks subscribed by a customer, Alliant Energy allocates that percentage of the kilowatt (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.

Example shows changes in solar production from month to month (based on the Alliant Energy Community Solar – Cedar Rapids solar garden).

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

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.