Community Solar Terms Glossary
- Automatic Enrollment Program - Starting in 2025, New Jersey's Community Solar Program allows municipal governments to select a group of residents to participate in a automatic enrollment program. This group of residents could be a census block track a neighborhood or even a single multi-family building where at least 80% of the residents qualify as low or moderate income.
If a resident does not want to participate in the Community Solar program for any reason, instructions for opting out of the program will be included with the notification received. Participants can opt-out of the program at anytime without having to pay a fee or penalty. - Community Solar Bill Credit - The credit that community solar subscribers receive directly on their electric utility bill for the electricity generated by the solar panels associated with their community solar subscription. The electric utility bill will show the cost of the electricity used by the customer and the credit from the community solar subscription. The value of the community solar bill credit is based on the retail rate of each customer that has subscribed to a community solar project.
- Consolidated Billing - Beginning in 2025, community solar participants will see both the community solar billing credit and the subscription fee listing on their electric bill. Because the subscription fee is always lower than the bill credit this will result in a savings for the resident.
- Fee Escalator - A contract term that allows the base price of the subscription to increase over the course of the contract.
- Low- and Moderate-Income (LMI) - As defined by the Community Solar Energy Pilot Program, a low-income household has an adjusted gross income at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. A moderate-income household has a total gross annual household income over 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, but no more than 80% of median income, as determined by the U.S. HUD annual income limits.
Residents with household incomes below the income limits should inquire about enhanced savings offers for LMI residents.
To see the household income limits for LMI Households, view the self-attestation form which lists the LMI Household income limits by county. - Master Meter - A single meter that measures the electric, water, or natural gas usage of multiple housing units, such as in multifamily housing facilities. Not all community solar projects offer subscriptions to master-metered buildings.
- Non-Bypassable Charge - Fees that utility customers will always be responsible for paying, regardless of their participation in a community solar project. Examples of non-bypassable charges include the monthly fixed customer charge and the societal benefits charge.
- Percent of community solar bill credit retained by subscriber as savings - The percentage of the community solar bill credit that is retained by the customer as a savings is determined by your community solar subscription contract. Most community solar projects have percentage of savings based on the community solar bill credit. Some community solar subscriber contracts may have percentage of savings based on the entire electric utility bill.
- Subscriber - Person(s) that enter into a community solar subscription contract. Subscribers receive community solar bill credits on their electric utility bill and a separate bill for the community solar subscription fee.
- Subscriber Organization - Entity that conducts subscriber acquisition and subscriber management for community solar projects. All subscriber organizations are required to register with the NJBPU.