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A community solar farm or garden is a solar power installation that accepts capital from and provides output credit and tax benefits to individual and other investors. In some systems you buy individual solar panels which are installed in the farm after your purchase. In others you purchase kW capacity or kWh of production. The farm's power output is credited to investors in proportion to their investment, with adjustments to reflect ongoing changes in capacity, technology, costs and electricity rates. Companies, cooperatives, governments or non-profits operate the farms.〔 Centralizing the location of solar systems has advantages over residential installation that include: * Trees, roof size and/or configuration, adjacent buildings, the immediate microclimate and/or other factors which may reduce power output.〔〔 * Building codes, zoning restrictions, homeowner association rules and aesthetic concerns.〔 * Lack of skills and commitment to install and maintain solar systems.〔 * Expanding participation to include renters and others who are not residential property owners.〔 The Solar Gardens Institute〔(Solar Gardens Community Power )〕 maintains a national directory〔(Community Energy Directory )〕 of community solar projects and organizations. As of 2011, farms encompassed both photovoltaic and concentrating solar power technologies. == Community solar in the United States == An estimated 85 percent of US residential can neither own nor lease systems because their roofs are physically unsuitable for solar or because they live in multi-family housing. At least 52 projects are under development in at least 17 states, and at least 10 states encourage their development through policy and programs.〔 Federal and other tax policies are necessary to finance community solar farms. U.S. Senator Mark Udall introduced the SUN Act (Solar Uniting Neighborhoods) to extend the existing 30% tax credit to community solar farms in 2010 and 2011.〔〔 The bill would enable groups of individuals or homeowner associations to develop utility-scale solar power facilities in collaboration with local utilities that would distribute the power and credit owners based on their percentage of investment in the solar farm, extending the tax credits accordingly.〔 “These projects have the potential to drastically increase the adoption of clean energy nationwide, but the tax code hasn’t kept up,” Udall said. “You can get a 30-percent tax credit for putting a solar panel on your house, but not for investing in a solar farm.”〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Community solar farm」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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