Maryland Community Solar - Explore Your Options

A subscription agreement can be a long-term contract like a mortgage or car loan. It is important to carefully review the agreement before signing it. The state of Maryland regulates community solar projects, subscriber organizations, and their offerings. Contracts must disclose information such as contract price, term length, additional charges, renewal, dispute resolution, insurance, and system maintenance. Check the terms you are offered and ask questions! Make sure you understand what’s in your agreement.

KEY PROVISIONS

Subscription Type

The subscription type governs how you pay a provider for subscribing to their community solar installation. The subscription type you choose can influence your expected savings and the savings certainty.

Contract length and exit provisions

For pay-as-you-go subscription types, providers may require a long-term agreement. This could be as long as 25 years, but can be as short as a few months. Providers offer several ways to exit the agreement early. Fees for terminating an agreement early will vary by provider and circumstance. For example, if you become disabled or move out a utility area you may not have to pay a fee.

Additional fees

Some subscription agreements have additional fees beyond those associated with the subscription type (e.g., maintenance fee for pre-pay subscription type, processing fee for credit card payment). We try to indicate any additional fees in the information provided in the project descriptions, but you should verify that your subscriber agreement only contains the fees you expect it to contain.

Start date

The solar installation may not be built yet. Be sure to review when the installation is expected to open, what happens if it opens at a different time, and what happens if it doesn’t open at all.

Other terms

We try to provide as much information as we can on each project but we can't cover everything. It’s important to review the subscriber agreement in detail. Additional terms may cover data privacy, notice provisions, or terms about when the installation is out of service.

Other forms

You may need to complete other forms for your subscription in addition to your subscriber agreement. The typical ones include:

Historical electricity use: The provider may ask you for a copy of a recent utility bill or ask to have you execute a form allowing the utility to provide them your historic electricity usage data to correctly size your subscription. If you subscribe to more community solar than you use in your home in a year, the excess will be valued at a lower rate.
Subscriber Agency Agreement: This type of form authorizes the utility to process your subscription and issue your bill credit on your monthly utility bills.
Credit Check: For pay-as-you-go subscription types, the provider may ask to run a credit check before executing a subscriber agreement with you.