Solar 

Solar Electric (PV) Incentives

To encourage Ashland residents and businesses to install new solar electric systems interconnected with the electrical supply grid, the City of Ashland offers financial incentives for qualifying installations. This incentive is frequently combined with Federal Incentives to help reduce the initial cost of the system. 

Is my site good for solar?

There are many factors to determine if your property is a good candidate for solar. Assessing your roof is a good place to start. You will need to determine how much sunlight your roof receives. A south facing roof with access to direct sunlight for a majority of the day is the ideal condition. The size of your roof will also determine how many panels you can fit. Every house is a unique situation so it's best to reach out to your local installer.

Use our GIS map to see your solar potential

Current Incentive

Solar electric installations that pass their electric inspections can receive incentive payments of $600 from the City of Ashland. 

In addition, your system will benefit from Net Metering, which means you can accumulate unused electricity from the sunnier months to apply towards your electric usage in the winter months. Any remaining energy credits after your March 31 billing cycle will then be credited towards your account based on the municipal utility's wholesale rates on the next bill. 

Program Requirements

• The owner of the system must own or be a tenant of the facility where the system is installed.
• The system must be interconnected with the electric service at the facility and be net-metered.
• The system must have at least 2,500 W of panels with total solar resource fractions (TSRFs) of at least 75%.
  • Qualifying systems must have at least 2,500 Watts of panels with TSRFs of at least 75% that are independent (independent maximum power point tracking) from panels with less than 75% TSRFs.
• The system must be installed with permits from the City's Building Safety Division and comply with all permit requirements.

Application Materials 

Ensure that you have read all program details and understand all program eligibility requirements. (Please contact staff early in the process if you have questions.)

• Complete the following documents:
  • Application and Compliance form
  • Electric Power Purchase Agreement
• Upload completed and signed documents with our online form.
• Submit a roof plan with corresponding TSRFs of each panel.
• Send a copy of the project invoice.

After you have solar - how to read your meter document.

Off-Site Solar

Ashland has a quality solar resource, but with rugged terrain and a mature tree canopy only 50% of buildings are well suited for solar energy systems. Off-site solar allows systems to be installed anywhere within the City's electric grid. This enables systems to be sized and suited for optimal performance and improved investment. The energy produced at one electric meter is credited to another meter within Ashland's Municipal Electric Utility. Having the system off-site also allows citizens to support renewable energy without having to modify their building or residence.

How it Works

Off-site solar is privately owned and is meant to be developed in much of the same way as conventional solar. The primary difference is that the City of Ashland facilitates the billing mechanism which transfers energy credits from the generator to the recipient. The City does not define the relationship between the project developer/owner, project site owner, and energy credit recipient.

Additional details

 Off-site solar participants may pursue a variety of ownership models, including direct ownership, group ownership, long term power contracts, and subscription models, to name a few possibilities. The owner of the system is responsible for finding an installation site.

• Each "generator account" must fill out an allocation table (updated once per year) describing how and where the energy will be distributed (on a percent basis).
• Each "benefitting account" receives a kWh credit for each kWh produced by the generator account on their behalf.
• The program is only available within the Ashland Municipal Electric Utility.
• Community solar projects: groups of residents or businesses may share in the production of a combined solar installation.
• Leasing opportunities: Owners of large rooftops or other under-utilized space may profit from leasing that area for solar development.

Local Projects

There are a few off-site solar examples that are happening around Ashland.

• ScienceWorks
• Ashland Food Co-op
• Ashland Solar Co-op

Virtual Net Metering

If you are going to have a virtually net metered system (a separate production meter for the generating system) then you must also fill out the Virtual Net Metering Allocation Agreement. Virtual Net Metering is used when you want allocations of the production to benefit an offsite location(s).