The Butler Rural Community Solar program allows cooperative members to purchase subscriptions to solar panels. Subscribers get the benefits of solar energy without upfront costs and without having solar panels located at their home. Generating energy with solar power creates no pollution or carbon dioxide emissions and is a clean, renewable, and sustainable alternative energy source.

Our first community solar array is located on the corner of Lanes Mill and Stillwell Beckett roads across from our office. Construction for the 228 panel array was completed in February 2017. Our second array was completed in July 2022 and is located in Findlay, Ohio. This larger array, built together with Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives, has 662 panels for our members.

Benefits of Community Solar

1. No upfront costs
2. No maintenance costs
3. No installation barriers, such as trees, roof size, or house orientation/location
4. Economies of scale

Program Details

1. Members of Butler Rural Electric Cooperative can subscribe to up to ten solar panels, and the energy produced by those panels will be calculated into their monthly bill.
2. The average cost is approximately $1 per month, per panel with the solar credit applied. This cost is in addition to participating members’ current electric bills.
3. Each panel is expected to produce about 400 kilowatt–hours per year, but the output may be more or less in any given year, depending on weather conditions.

For more information, visit the Community Solar webpage.