David Brosch had a problem many Americans can relate to. He wanted solar power, but wasn’t able to put it on his house. His roof had the wrong orientation, a tree partially blocked the sun, and it was more than he could afford. Many of his neighbors were in the same situation — some were renters, others were too busy to handle the process of an installation on their house.
They got together and formed a company, University Park Community Solar (UPCS), and approached a local church with a large roof and good solar orientation. In exchange for placing solar panels on it’s roof, the church would be guaranteed a long-term low price of electricity. David told us: “We wanted a project that could stand on it’s own. Not one funded by donations, but something that was financially viable that folks would be willing to invest in. A solar project done right can turn a profit, so we thought, let’s pool our money and do it together.” Sounds simple enough, right?
As far as we can tell, no one had ever pulled off a project quite like that before. UPCS needed to come up with the right legal entity, faced Securities regulations that res... Read more
