Here's how to join the accelerator and access the services, trainings, and resources available
The Community Power Accelerator is helping increase access to the funding and technical expertise necessary to deploy community solar across the country.
By providing training courses, guidance, and technical assistance for pre-development planning, as well as an online platform to make connections, the Accelerator is built to help developers and community-based organizations step of the way from project conception to deployment.
To reach our goal of ensuring 5 million households have access to community solar power, we need to rapidly deploy community solar across the country - and the Community Power Accelerator is designed to help achieve this goal by helping you:
Gain Expertise: Designed for new, small developers and community-based organizations, our Learning Lab offers online training to get you ready to start a new community solar project or program.
Plan Your Projects: We provide free technical assistance services to help you complete the CreditReady Checklist.
Focus on Equity: We advise you on incorporating meaningful benefits for communities into your project plan and recruit equity-focused capital providers and philanthropic organizations.
Get Projects Funded: Our online platform provides a place to shop your credit-ready projects around to verified project developers, capital providers, and philanthropic organizations.
The Community Power Accelerator Platform: Connecting Capital Providers and Developers
The online Accelerator platform uses advanced algorithms to help developers, community-based organizations, lenders, and philanthropic organizations identify and connect with each other. Here's how:
Developers and capital providers sign up for the Accelerator and create profiles that identify the kinds of solar projects they are interested in deploying.
For developers, that means sharing information about the organization's role, location, size, capacity, and more.
For capital providers, lenders, and philanthropies, that means sharing information about the location, scale of funding available, and the kinds of projects they are interested in funding.
Developers using the accelerator must complete at least one project profile on the platform in order to connect with funders. This includes detailed information about a specific community solar project, including ownership, location, size, projected benefits, site control, development stage, and types of capital needed for development.
Developers that do not have a project ready to post are encouraged to utilize Accelerator resources, which are designed to help build a pipeline of new projects.
Every organizational and project profile is reviewed by a technical assistance provider for completeness and accuracy prior to being posted on the accelerator platform. These reviews typically take 2-5 business days, and in some cases longer. The reviews ensure projects submitted to the platform meet minimum requirements for capital providers and funders and are aligned with the Accelerator's goal of providingmeaningful benefits to communities.
The Accelerator uses algorithms to match projects and developers with capital providers and philanthropic organizations whose priorities align based on the criteria submitted. You can also use the “Discover” feature to sort and filter projects based on location, size, meaningful benefits, and other criteria.
Once you've found a project or capital partner that might be a good fit, you can use the platform to request contact. Your personal information and contact data will remain private until you choose to share it.
Get your project funded OR Fund a project!
The Credit-Ready Checklist: Build a Strong Project Plan
The Credit-Ready Checklist is the key resource that developers can use to ready their projects to shop around to funders. It contains a list of important pre-development considerations, including information about system size, siting, ownership, capital structure, revenues, and costs.
This checklist was developed in collaboration with more than 40 representatives from financial institutions familiar with solar lending, including commercial banks, community development financial institutions, green banks, and credit unions. Lenders, philanthropic organizations, and developers can use this checklist to start initial conversations about funding for community solar projects.
Technical Assistance: Your Guide through the Checklist
The National Community Solar Partnership+ (NCSP+) provides free one-on-one assistance to complete the Credit-Ready Checklist, helping address financial, technical, and policy challenges and develop project profiles.
Please note that the technical assistance program does not provide financial assistance, accounting or tax advice, advocacy, or marketing support. Organizations must be a National Community Solar Partnership partner to be eligible to apply for and receive technical assistance.
Sign up for the free, self-paced Foundations of Community Solar Development course through the University of New Hampshire Carsey School of Impact Finance. This online training prepares community-based organizations, solar developers, and others to develop, finance, and build community solar projects that bring meaningful benefits to low-income and disadvantaged communities.
The Community Power Accelerator Prize: Earn Funding for Equitable Community Solar Projects
The American-Made Community Power Accelerator Prize is a $10 million prize competition designed to fast-track the efforts of new, emerging, and expanding solar developers and co-developers to learn, participate, and grow their operations to support multiple, successful community solar projects. Learn more
The Philanthropy Guide: Prepare to Gain Philanthropic Support
The Philanthropy-Ready Guide provides guidance to community-based organizations, nonprofits, and mission-aligned developers seeking philanthropic support to develop community solar.
Have a question about the Accelerator? Don't hesitate to reach out at communitypower@nrel.gov
