Who We Are

Solar Commons is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and development lab. Our mission is to demonstrate how to gather the sun’s common wealth through solar panels and turn it into a peer-governed revenue stream for reparative justice work in low-income communities. We make the sun’s common wealth visible and useable through tools of community trust ownership and digital dashboard transparency. We are developing free, DIY community economy tools and pilots for a more equitable, regenerative future.  Learn more about the Solar Commons Trust Model.

We work with researchers, community partners and funders to pilot, test and develop Solar Commons demonstration projects throughout the US. As stewards of the Solar Commons Trust Ownership Model, we aim to make “solar commoning” a robust community economy option of our energy transition. The sun shines for everyone.   We believe that solar technologies, shaped for 20-plus years in legal structures of social trust, can be vehicles of community empowerment.   Learn more about our guiding principles. 

Established in 2017 by a legal anthropologist and two creative engineers, the Solar Commons nonprofit holds a trademark on the Solar Commons name and model.   We license these to community-engaged researchers and artists who work with us to make Solar Commons a trusted commons sector institution of the 21st century.  Our governing board also acts as trust protector for Solar Commons demonstration projects built with community partners. Our first demonstration project, the Dunbar Solar Commons (SC1.0) was interconnected to the Tucson, AZ grid in 2018.  It won a 2022 Sunny Award for Equitable Community Solar in the US Department of Energy’s Solar in Your Community Competition. Learn more about Solar Commons Living Labs in Arizona and Minnesota.

What Experts Say About the Solar Commons Trust Model

In 2018, the Rocky Mountain Institute completed independent analyses of the Solar Commons financial model and its scalability. Their findings: positive net present value for investment in all scenarios studied; potential for rapid US scalability to 10 gigawatts. Read the Rocky Mountain Institute’s financial and scalability analyses of the Solar Commons Trust Model.