- Some activists, local officials and state lawmakers want it to be easier for Michigan communities to have their own small solar arrays under the “community solar” model.
- These community solar arrays allow people to purchase panels and receive credits on their energy bills based on how much energy those panels produce.
- Investor-owned utilities - like DTE and Consumers Energy - lobbied against the bills. These companies argued the bills were unnecessary and would've raised electricity rates.
Detroit officials unveiled in December designs for three new DTE solar arrays. The city’s mayor said the farms would make Detroit a “national leader” in the fight against climate change.
Support for renewable energy is high among Detroit’s citizens and elected leaders. But as city council debated the project last summer it became clear not everyone loves this particular approach, which requires 100 acres of “vacant, blighted” land.
Council president Mary Sheffield initially voted against the project — partly because of her interest in “community solar.”
“It was very unfortunate to hear that DTE has lobbied against Senate bills that would allow community solar to be legal,” Sheffield said before casting her vote in the July meeting. “One can only surmise that DTE did so because community solar would decrease their profit and benefit residents.”
The state Senate bills Sheffield referenced were introduced in 2023. But the bipartisan bills died without ever coming up for a vote.
Community solar isn’t technically illegal in Michigan. There are versions in Lansing, Escanaba, Marquette and more. These projects can take a lot of shapes — and not everyone agrees on what counts.
Often, community solar projects are smaller scale farms tucked into the landscape at county airports, landfills and brownfields.
People living nearby can buy panels at the farm. The panels often, but not always, cost a one time fee around $400. That’s much less than the cost of installing panels on an individual rooftop.
Several existing community solar programs in the state tend to work this way, but the flexibility in this model could allow future projects to look very different.
That’s part of why many more communities want their own little solar projects. Community solar is gaining support across the urban-rural, peninsular and political divide as demonstrated by legislation, local public meetings, and more.
“[Community solar] gives us the chance to site small things in places that maybe others wouldn't,” farmer and Sanilac Township supervisor Dan Kelly told lawmakers in June. “So that those benefits to the community can be in place without the negative impacts that large solar projects typically have a reputation for causing.”
There are several fights over large solar projects happening in the Thumb region, where Kelly lives. Many think the solar farms would be “ugly”, ruin communities’ rural character and hurt property values.
Kelly said his neighbors wouldn’t even be able to see a smaller project on his lavender farm without flying over it.
“A community solar project on our property makes our farm productive financially, creates more stability for our business, contributes to our retirement and creates an inheritance opportunity for our children,” Kelly said.
So why aren’t there more community solar projects?
The vast majority of the state’s municipalities — like Detroit and Sanilac Township — would have to convince one of the state’s investor-owned utilities to let a community solar project access customers and the grid.
“However, cooperation with incumbent utilities is virtually non-existent,” state Sen. Ed McBroom (R-Waucedah Township) said in an interview.
The legislation would have forced the utilities to cooperate with these projects — so long as they fall below a certain size and ensure a portion of the energy supports low-income people.
McBroom co-sponsored the community solar legislation that failed last year along with Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor).
“There's strong opposition and primarily it's coming from the big solar and wind industries and the big incumbent utilities that are making money hand over fist right now,” McBroom said. “It's very frustrating because we are up against huge, huge powerful interests, especially the monopolies who have the ability to lobby our legislature and do both sides of the aisle extensively.”
Consumers Energy and DTE are the state’s largest investor-owned utilities. They, alongside a group of industry and labor groups that opposed the bills, argue that changing state law is “not necessary.”
They say the types of community solar projects the bills would have enabled only benefit small groups of people, while raising costs on everyone else.
Plus, both utilities say the community solar programs they already offer are among the “largest” or “most progressive” in the country.
How (some) existing community solar projects work
Michigan State University professor Jeno Rivera was a bit skeptical when she heard that the Lansing Board of Water & Light (BWL) was building a community solar project on an old landfill in East Lansing. People and businesses nearby could buy panels at the site for $399 each.
“And so I was like, I’ll start with one,” Rivera said. “I wish I would have bought more.”
But BWL already sold all 1,000 panels. More than 50 people are on a waitlist. BWL told Michigan Public that the utility is “discussing” expanding its community solar offerings.
Rivera gets a credit on her electric bill based on how much power her panel produces.
“It's not much. I get a credit of I think like two dollars,” she said.
Over time, that monthly credit adds up. She can expect to earn back about $150 more than she paid for the panel – but it's going to take 25 years. Rivera said she thinks the return would have been more meaningful, and come faster, if she had bought more.
This community solar project is able to exist because Lansing BWL is a “municipal utility” — power and water companies owned and operated by local governments.
BWL already controls the grid and customer base its community solar project serves. It doesn’t need permission from DTE or Consumers Energy to access them.
Outgoing Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss told Michigan Public’s Doug Tribou she’s been pushing to get a solar farm built on a landfill in Grand Rapids for years. The state’s rules have made that a challenge, she said.
Bliss said she told Lansing Mayor Andy Schor that she was “jealous” of the “autonomy and authority” the municipal utility gives his city. There are only about 40 municipal utilities in the state.
The city of Escanaba’s Electric Department built a larger project than Lansing’s at the Delta County Airport. Marquette’s Board of Light & Power built one by its headquarters.
The small Upper Peninsula village of L’Anse used its municipal utility to build a community solar project of 450 panels at a local industrial park. Like Escanaba, Lansing and Marquette, people could pay a one time fee to buy panels and receive credits in exchange.
A state grant allowed L’Anse to set aside 250 panels for 25 low-to-middle income households.
Instead of paying a one time fee, these households could get up to 10 panels for a monthly subscription of 90 cents each. The average monthly credit for the panels is 2-3 times that cost. So those households start saving money on their electrical bills right away instead of waiting years to break even. A 2024 study found those households needed less assistance to pay their electric bills in the year after this program began.
The now-failed community solar bills would have required community solar projects to ensure that 30% of the electricity produced “be reserved for low-income households and low-income service organizations.”
The utilities version
DTE says it already offers a community solar program – one that they say is “more cost-effective” and has a greater environmental impact than smaller community solar arrays.
Like DTE, Consumers Energy argues state law doesn’t need to change.
“We think of community solar as solar generation that allows multiple people to share in the benefits of a solar project,” Consumers’ Vice President of Customer Experience Lauren Snyder said. “And we really believe that it needs to be affordable for all and reliable for all.”
The company’s main community solar offering is its Solar Gardens program. For a monthly fee of $8, customers in any part of Consumers’ sprawling service area can subscribe to “SolarBlocks” or smaller “MicroBlocks” in one of four smaller solar farms the company has built over the last nine years.
Like other community solar projects, people get a credit on their monthly bill for the energy their “SolarBlock” produces.
But the monthly cost has historically exceeded the average credit. The company’s terms explicitly state that customers “should not enroll in this program with any expectation of profit or financial gain.”
“If you subscribe to our Solar Gardens program, you are owning that SolarBlock,” Snyder said. “You're helping advance the transformation that we're making in how we supply energy.”
“The price for solar has come down so much,” said Sen. Jeff Irwin, who co-sponsored the legislation. “It is unfair and undesirable for customers to participate in a program through the utilities where they pay a premium to create energy that's actually cheaper to generate.”
DTE’s version of community solar is different in a few key ways. “MIGreenPower” subscribers are mostly paying to support wind generation at three giant farms.
Only 12% of the energy in the program right now comes from a mid-Lower Peninsula solar farm that is nearly 70 times larger (by wattage) than the biggest community solar farm the legislation would have allowed.
DTE declined an interview for this story. But in a written statement, the company defines community solar as “any program where customers can subscribe to renewable energy.”
“Though the optics may be different, MIGreenPower operates in the same way as any other community solar program,” a DTE spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement.
DTE says the balance of wind and solar will shift. By 2027, the company said, “approximately 60%” of MIGreenPower energy will come from solar.
Like Consumers Energy, DTE’s program is a subscription model. But instead of paying to “own” a panel or “SolarBlock,” customers can pay to cover a certain amount of their energy usage with renewables.
Instead of receiving a monthly credit based on the amount of energy produced, customers get a flat credit for a year based on a rate that is set every June. Most of the time, MIGreenPower subscribers were paying more than the credits they received.
Debate about who pays for grid improvements
Small community solar farms are not enough to power a whole city on their own. So large-scale utilities would still provide some energy and ensure reliability.
The projects also have to connect to the existing grid, which requires expensive upgrades. And, under the proposed legislation, the utilities would've had to let the community solar projects use existing billing systems to dole out credits.
That’s why DTE and Consumers Energy argue community solar projects would get to “select” small groups of people who benefit, while customers who aren’t participating in those projects end up paying more.
“Since MIGreenPower supports renewable energy development on a much larger scale, it is more cost-effective for our customers than subscribing to a smaller community solar array and has a greater impact on Michigan’s clean energy transformation,” DTE said in an emailed statement.
However, Consumers Energy is willing to work with third party community solar development, VP Snyder said, “as long as the fundamental tenants remain that it is affordable for all customers and does not create a subsidy for other customers.”
But the grid needs upgrades anyway, as community solar advocates point out. Both DTE and Consumers rank “worse than average” among utilities for the average time needed to restore power after an outage.
Both utilities need to spend a lot of money to improve reliability — and customers will have to help cover that cost.
“When these third-party developers come in to build a community solar array with the help and the investment of their subscribers ... they're going to be required to make upgrades to our very neglected, very unreliable grid infrastructure,” Irwin said. “Other ratepayers who aren't a part of the community solar array actually benefit from the installation of the community solar. ”
Senators Irwin and McBrooms’ bills didn’t specify who would pay for grid upgrades. Instead, they would have directed the Michigan Public Service Commission to craft new rules for big utilities to follow while cooperating with community solar.
The grid will also benefit from more distributed power generation created by allowing more small community solar projects, advocates argue.
“Community solar projects such as those paired with energy storage solutions, like batteries, can significantly enhance resiliency during power outages,” Highland Park activist Rafael Mojica told lawmakers in June. “This not only improves the safety and well-being of residents, but also reduces the strain on our electric grid during peak demand periods.”
“The best we can do”
In an email, a spokesperson for Senator Ed McBroom confirmed that there are plans to reintroduce the community solar bills in the 2025 legislative session.
It’s not clear that they’ll be more successful.
“We have to get to a point where DTE is on board because they are the thousand pound elephant in Lansing saying no to [community solar],” Detroit Councilmember Scott Benson said in a July city committee hearing.
Benson voted in favor of advancing DTE’s projects in Detroit — but he made clear that he also supports community solar.
Until state law changes, he said, “this is the best we can do.”
Both DTE and Consumers Energy are or have recently been corporate supporters of Michigan Public.
