The community energy model presents an exciting opportunity to bring more people into renewable energy investments. And at Shake, we know that there is even more social value that can be created from community energy projects: the value that comes from feeling genuine ownership over a project. We excel at creating this type of value with our unique co-design process, which guarantees community members the opportunity to make decisions about energy projects in their own neighborhood. We host community meetings where residents can express their creative ideas for the characteristics of a solar farm such as the site it is built on, the size of the solar farm, and innovative ways to use the land beneath the solar panels. These ideas, based on local knowledge and preference, heavily influence the development process that we later carry out. We also invite important partners like representatives from the utility company to our community meetings. By welcoming all of the project’s stakeholders into the same room during the decision making process, including the utility, local government, us as developers, and the community who will benefit from the project, we forge trust and demonstrate transparency.

 

With affirmation that their ideas are incorporated into a project, we leave residents with a unique sense of excitement about their new community solar garden. Rather than just approving or tolerating a project, we see community members advocating for it to happen as soon as possible! Then, since their input has driven the construction of the project that will now bring decades of financial savings to their community, community members take on a powerful sense of emotional ownership that will last throughout a project’s lifetime.