Community Solar Project

Community Solar Expansion Program

The Washington State Community Solar Expansion Program is an incentive program that aims to expand access to the benefits of renewable energy for Washington’s low-income sector. The Program seeks to incentivize projects that will deliver continuing direct benefits and reduce the energy burden for low-income communities.

Announcement (3/13/2026)

As of March 2026, the Community Solar Expansion Program has reached $25 million in obligated funding allocations for both the FY26–FY27 biennium & the FY28-FY29 biennium (July 1st, 2027 – June 30th, 2029). Due to full obligations of available biennium funding, the Community Solar Expansion Program will not accept new applications or project inquiries until July 1, 2027, which marks the opening of the application window for the FY30-FY31 biennium.

Community Solar is a different approach to developing solar energy. Instead of putting solar on your home (which requires home ownership, the right sunny location, and a relatively large upfront investment), Community Solar lets many people come together to build one more extensive solar array. Tanner Electric built a Community Solar project on behalf of our members. We chose a location that is a good fit for solar. The panels are sunny, visible to the public, and on property owned by Tanner Electric.

Tanner Electric members had the opportunity to participate in our TEC community solar program and invested in solar shares in 2016.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Participants received an annual incentive payment through 2020 from both Tanner Electric and Washington State for their portion of the electricity generated. Current production incentives are as follows:

Washington state: $1.08/kWh*
Tanner Electric: $0.0998/kWh*
Total Production Incentive of $1.18/kWh yields an estimated annual credit of almost $.96 per watt in a solar unit, or approximately $66 per year through 2020. Currently, there are no community solar shares or incentives being offered.

The program ends in June 2036 as that is what Tanner Electric estimates the life of the solar array panels. The Washington state renewable energy production incentives are currently guaranteed until June of 2020 and represent the largest portion of energy credits. In 2036, the Community Solar project will end, correlating with the expected productive life of the solar panels.

Due to the fact that your solar panels are part of a 40,000 watt array that shares one production meter, your bill will be credited back at a pro-rata portion of the entire array’s production. For example, each unit in the Community Solar represents a 55 watt piece of the entire system. We have projected that each $230 Community Solar unit could return about $350 in electricity bill credits and incentive payments to members by the time the Tanner Electric Community Solar project ends in 2036.

Community Solar Expansion

Announcement (10/15/2025)

As of October 2025, a significant number of precertification applications have been submit and forecasted obligated funding levels are have reached $25 million for the FY25-FY27 Biennium (July 1st 2025 – June 30th 2027). Potential projects may continue to submit for precertification and can receive approval, but may not be able to submit for certification and receive the one-time incentive payment until the next Biennium (July 1st 2027 – June 30th 2029). Additional approved precertifications will be placed on a waitlist in order of approval for potential certification and incentive payment in this biennium, if changes are made in other projects and funding becomes available.

If you have unanswered questions about this new process, please contact us at ep.csep@wsu.edu

Participating utilities pay production incentives to qualified solar-generating customers (including Community Solar participants) within their service territories and receive an operating tax credit equal to the cost of the payments. The tax credit that the utility may claim cannot exceed the greater of $100,000 or 0.5% of the utility’s taxable power sales. Utility-owned Community Solar can only be 25% of our maximum tax credit allowed. The incentive amount paid by a utility on behalf of the state may be proportionally reduced if requests for incentive payments exceed the tax credit cap available to that utility. Without a change in Washington state law, incentive payments to Tanner Electric’s Community Solar members could be reduced for the duration of the program, through 2020, if additional Community Solar projects are built. For Community Solar members, a reduction in incentive payments per unit would be small, but is dependent on Tanner Electric building additional Community Solar units; it is not possible to estimate the amount of reduction, if any. Therefore, Tanner Electric is planning to limit the size of the Community Solar project(s) so that incentives are not capped.

Annual Meeting:

Can solar power work in North Bend?

How much did the shares cost?

Where is this Community Solar project located?

Incentive credit for the energy produced by my solar unit(s)?

Why does the program end in June 2036?

Is my payment for solar unit(s) eligible for an investment tax credit?

Can I take the solar electricity benefits with me if I move?

How is the credit to my utility bill determined?

How does the state incentive program work?