Topics Covered
- Oregon’s Community Solar Program
- Project Specifications & Low-Income Requirements
- Project Selection Criteria
- Credit Mechanism & Incentives
- Market Analysis
- Appendix (Utility service territory maps, tariffs and resources)
- Oregon’s Community Solar Program
Oregon launched its community solar program under Senate Bill 1547 in 2016, creating new opportunities for households and businesses to access clean energy. The program is overseen by the Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC) and operates within the state’s three major investor-owned utilities: Portland General Electric (PGE), Pacific Power, and Idaho Power.
After a successful Interim Offering, composed of 82 MW capacity, Oregon launched its Second Offering phase in 2022, expanding participation and refining equity-focused rules. The Second Offering opened an additional 79 MW, including 20 MW specifically reserved for designated low-income carve-out projects, of which 50% of capacity is mandated to go to low-income participants.
Eligible projects can range in size from 25 kW to 3 MW. Within that range, Oregon distinguishes between:
- Small projects (≤ 360 kW)*
- Large projects (> 360 kW and up to 3 MW)
*Note: To qualify as a small project under the Program’s Designated Project Carve-Out, a system must be independently developed, not co-located or tied by shared ownership or revenue-sharing agreements to other projects that would together exceed 360 kW.
- Project Specifications & Low-Income Requirements
Project Specifications
Oregon’s community solar program was designed to ensure broad participation. Each project, under both the offerings, must include at least five subscribers, with no single subscriber holding more than 40% of total capacity; and no more than 50% of project capacity can be allocated to non-residential subscribers, thereby reserving additional space for residential households.
Subscription sizing requirements are as follows:
- Subscriptions cannot exceed 100% of a customer’s annual electricity usage.
- Customers may subscribe to multiple projects, so long as their total combined subscriptions stay within that 100% threshold.
- Subscriptions cannot be transferred across utility territories.
Low-Income (LMI) Requirements
To advance equitable access and ensure meaningful energy savings, Oregon’s program sets clear and measurable goals for low-income participation. Every non-designated project must dedicate at least 10% of its total capacity to serve low- and moderate-income (LMI) households.
LMI eligibility is defined as households earning at or below 80% of Oregon’s State Median Income, with income verification conducted by the Program Administrator’s Low-Income Facilitator for all qualifying subscribers.
- Required savings:
- Interim Offering: LMI subscribers must receive at least 20% bill savings
- Second offering: The required bill savings was increased to 40%, doubling the minimum benefit for LMI participants.
- Projects offering 50% or greater net savings are prioritized for selection.
- Project Managers may also request a waiver from the required subscription discount if doing so would allow a larger share of project capacity to be allocated to low-income subscribers. This flexibility enables developers to expand participation among LMI households while maintaining the program’s equity goals.
- Affordable housing participation offers another pathway:
- Housing providers may subscribe on behalf of tenants, but tenants must receive at least 87.5% of all financial savings.
- To ensure direct benefits, At least half of the required LMI capacity, or 5% of total project capacity, must be served by individual low-income households with utility accounts in their own names.
- Pre-Certified Designated Carve-out Projects may qualify by meeting one of the following requirements:
- LMI Participation: At least 50% of project capacity must be reserved for low-income subscribers. Eligibility is verified at certification once enrollment thresholds are met.
- Project Manager Attributes: The Project Manager must be a public entity, nonprofit organization, or renewable energy cooperative (as defined under ORS 59.025).
- Small Community-Sited Projects: Projects sized ≤360 kW-AC qualify when developed in partnership with an agent defined as a federally recognizable tribe, public entity, or nonprofit that plays a central role in site identification and subscriber outreach. The agent must lead outreach for at least 50% of project capacity (including 25% to residential customers) and submit a marketing plan during pre-certification. Upon Certification, the Project Manager (along with the agent, if project in interim offering) must attest that this requirement has been met.
- Underserved Community Participation: Projects developed with a tribal, public, or nonprofit partner that leads subscriber outreach for underserved communities may qualify by committing to subscribe 50% of project capacity (including 25% to residential customers) and providing a marketing plan and certification attestation.
Together, these requirements reinforce Oregon’s commitment to inclusive participation in the program.
- Project Selection Criteria
Oregon’s Community Solar Program uses a transparent, multi-step review process to ensure all projects meet regulatory, equity, and consumer protection standards.
All applications submitted under Oregon’s Community Solar Program undergo an initial screening to confirm completeness and identify any duplicate submissions. Once screened, applications are evaluated for regulatory compliance and low-income recruitment commitments.
Following review, the Program Administrator may recommend approval, conditional approval, or rejection based on whether the project meets program requirements. Applicants receiving conditional approval are provided 15 business days to correct or update their submissions.
Final decisions are issued by the OPUC either during public meetings or through the program administrator when applications are uncontested.
- Credit Mechanism & Incentives
Subscribers under Oregon’s Community Solar Program receive monthly bill credits based on their subscription share of the project’s total generation. Subscribers earn a bill credit equal to their project share multiplied by the applicable bill credit rate. Monetary credits are applied directly to the customer’s utility bill, reducing the total amount due.
The Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC) sets the bill credit rate, which is utility-specific and determined based on the capacity of pre-certified projects expected to come online within that utility’s service territory.
The bill credit rates under Oregon’s Community Solar Program differ between the two offerings as follows:
- Interim Offering (Tier 1): For projects pre-certified under Tier 1, the Commission set the Bill Credit Rate equal to the residential retail rate for each participating utility.
- Second Offering (Tier 2): Tier 2 creates two levels, or categories, of bill credit rates for both Pacific Power and Portland General Electric territories: Residential and non-residential bill credit rates. There is no Tier 2 change for Idaho Power.
- For pre-certified Tier 2 projects, the non-residential bill credit rate is 90% of the residential bill-credit rate.
- After 2022, there is a 2% annual escalation for both the PGE and Pacific Power residential and non-residential bill credit rates, .
- Current Tier 2 Bill Credit Rates for projects with generation periods starting from 2022 through 2042 can be found on the Oregon Community Solar Program website.
Oregon’s Community Solar Program offers Utility Consolidated Billing (UCB) to simplify payments both - the community solar credit and the subscription charge are shown on the same electric bill, managed directly by the utility. Utilities automatically remit payments to the Project Manager, simplifying billing, and eliminating the need for separate invoices.
Credit Considerations:
- Excess credits on the subscriber’s account roll over month-to-month and expire every April, during the annual bill reconciliation process. If annual generation exceeds a subscriber’s total usage:
- Non-LMI customers repay the value of the excess credits.
- LMI customers repay gradually, ensuring charges never exceed total savings.
- Any unused energy at the end of the reconciliation period is donated to the utility’s low-income assistance programs.
- Unsubscribed energy is not banked. Instead, Project Managers are compensated by utilities at the as-available avoided cost rate for unsubscribed power. The Program Administrator determines unsubscribed energy each month based on known subscription percentages.
Developer Takeaway: Oregon’s clear crediting framework and UCB reduce billing complexity, but developers should still plan for annual reconciliation risk, actively manage subscriptions, and leverage UCB’s simplicity to strengthen customer retention.
- Market Analysis
Oregon’s niche community solar program is proving to be a strong model for balancing developer opportunity with consumer protections. With a robust low-income savings requirement and mandatory consolidated billing, the program provides clear rules that shape both project economics and customer acquisition strategies.
In October 2025, OPUC issued an order expanding the Community Solar Program’s carve-out capacity by an additional 50 MW. While broader expectations around releasing additional open capacity were not met, this increase will help clear a path for low-income community solar projects already in the pipeline
