Article Sustainability Literacy

3 Ways to Showcase Your Commercial Solar Project in the Community

Today, saving money isn’t the only reason it’s smart to install solar. Organizations that promote sustainability and corporate responsibility are highly valued. As one of these organizations, you can build better relationships with your customers, employees, and community when they know that you’re committed to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles.

In Install Solar and Show Your Company’s Devotion to Sustainability, we explored the benefits of solar installations and of sharing the solar journey with various groups along the way. Here, we provide three solid strategies for doing so—and show how a couple of solar customers implemented these plans.

1) Lead Classroom and Field Learning

Educating employees, customers, and the community is one of the best ways to get them excited about the project. It’s helpful to invite them into a classroom situation to learn how the solar installation is helping the environment, by reducing carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions. You can also show them how much money the project is saving the organization or agency in energy dollars per year and over the lifetime of the project.

Individuals can ask questions and learn why a particular site was chosen, how it impacts the habitat, and any other questions they may have. A field tour of the solar installation can be particularly helpful, with the visit helping community members, employees, and customers feel vested in the project.

Kendall County installed a 2.1 megawatt solar farm in December 2020, working with Nelnet Renewable Energy (formerly GRNE Solar) and Progressive Business Solutions. The county hosted classroom sessions and field tours of the solar installation with community members, offering interactive Q&A sessions with solar installers to explain the technology and address any concerns.

2) Host and Attend Community Events

Piggyback onto other local or organization-wide events such as farmer’s markets or Earth Day events that draw community members who may be interested in your solar installation and its progress, and use the opportunity to generate additional excitement.

Hosting a well-publicized ribbon-cutting ceremony is one of the best ways to show you care about sustainability. It’s a great way to create a celebration around the go-live date, and it can create partnerships with neighbors and local stakeholders.

Fox Metro Water Reclamation District hosted a ribbon-cutting and held tours of their new solar installation. The public utility created a fun, community-oriented event that provided education at all levels.

As plans for your solar installation solidify, keep the community involved through active communication in a variety of channels. To maximize your audience, use social media posts, newsletter articles, blogs, and press releases to share information about progress, events you have planned, and important milestones. To build excitement as the project is installed, set up a live webcam at the solar site to provide updates.

You can also create a dashboard that shows the solar installation’s current energy production, lifetime production, solar field performance, and expected savings per year and over the course of the project—just as Kendall County and Fox Metro did. The dashboard also uses the EPA Carbon Reduction Equivalency Calculator to show environmental impacts, for example, in:

  • Total carbon dioxide metric tons saved.
  • Tree seedlings grown in 10 years.
  • Passenger vehicles driven in a year. Acres of U.S. forests in one year.

Screenshot of Kendall County Dashboard showing environmental impact

It’s also essential to share this information with your stakeholders through your annual report and other communications such as public announcements and letters to shareholders.

Contact Us

We excel at building partnerships, so we understand that success for our clients is much more than going live with solar panels. We’re excited to see them partner with their customers, employees, and communities to build enthusiasm for solar energy in our greater community and world—and we’re happy to support them in these efforts.

We invite you to learn more about why Nelnet Renewable Energy may be the best choice as your expert commercial solar installation partner. Contact our expert team to get started today.

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