Northern Indiana solar co-op launched for businesses and homeowners

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - Solar United Neighbors and Solarize Indiana are launching a northern Indiana co-op for homeowners and small businesses.

It’s free to join and open to residents and business owners in and around South Bend, Elkhart, Goshen, Plymouth and Warsaw.

Together, members will learn about solar energy and leverage their numbers to purchase individual solar systems at a competitive price.

“Net metering is the law that allows solar owners to get fair compensation for the solar energy that they generate that they might not use in their home and send back into the grid. It’s a fair one-for-one trade for the electricity they send out and the electricity they purchase from the grid. But that goes away July 1 of 2022,” says Dan Robinson, Solar United Neighbors.

Douglas Anderson, a homeowner with solar, says he will recoup his up-front cost of $20,000 in around nine years. The system will last 20 years, and you can still generate solar on cloudy days like Monday.

“For me, someone who had been researching it for a long time going to one of those information nights was so exciting. It’s an improvement in your home,” Anderson says.

Joining the co-op does not mean you need to purchase solar.

Instead, members will have the option to purchase panels and electric vehicle chargers based on the installer’s group rate.

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