EL MIRAGE, CA - August 2, 2023 -- With a nationwide push to construct up to 20 GW of community solar by 2025 and drive $1 billion in electricity bills savings, a goal set forth by the Department of Energy’s National Community Solar Partnership (NCSP), California's entry into the community solar market is proving essential. Moreover, as utility rates have increased more than 50 percent since 2020, there is a growing appetite for renewable energy. Now, the state’s renewable energy capacity is growing with the addition of the first community solar power plant in the Southern California Edison (SCE) service territory.

The 3.9 MW Sheep Creek Community Solar Farm is owned and operated by Catalyze, and its subscriber base was acquired by Ampion, a leading community solar subscription and revenue management company. The farm is now producing 9.5 million kWh of clean energy annually for local businesses, enterprises, and Southern California residents.

"Community solar’s debut in the Southern California Edison territory marks a watershed moment for the state and the movement,” said Nate Owen, CEO of Ampion. “Since community solar projects have no upfront cost or installation needed for users, they are an excellent way for states to give their citizens access to renewable energy. With Ampion’s successful acquisition of both enterprise and residential customers, all energy generated from the site will be used by the community. We are thrilled to partner with Catalyze to expand community solar’s reach in California and look forward to continuing to help grow this critical market."

Catalyze is a leading clean energy transition company. It builds, owns and operates solar, battery storage and electric vehicle (EV) charging systems for commercial and industrial customers. The Sheep Creek Community Solar Farm is situated on a 20-acre parcel of desert land in El Mirage, San Bernardino County. Local commercial entities, including ECOS and Clean Energy Fuels, are able to move their operations to 100 percent renewable energy by participating in the community solar farm.

“Community solar plays a key role in ensuring that participation in the clean energy transition is accessible to all,” said Jared Haines, CEO of Catalyze. “We couldn’t be prouder to develop the first front-of-the-meter community solar project that supports California’s ECR program. It is our hope that Sheep Creek can act as an example for other projects to follow statewide, and we can accelerate the execution of more community solar projects to help reach the goal of ensuring widespread availability of renewable energy.”

The Sheep Creek Solar Community Solar Farm is the first for SCE’s Community Renewables program. (Read about it in SolarBuilder!) The utility company services about 15 million people in Southern California and provides residential and commercial subscribers with access to solar energy without the effort and expense of rooftop solar. Those who subscribe receive a Community Renewables monetary credit on their electric bill for the energy generated by their allocation of the community solar farm. The energy generated on their behalf offsets up to 100 percent of their property’s energy generation charges. This offer is Green-e® Energy certified and meets the environmental and consumer-protection standards set forth by the nonprofit Center for Resource Solutions.

Ampion works with solar farm developers, utilities, and end-users to connect community solar projects with subscribers and manage those operations. Currently, Ampion has over 1 GW of community solar projects under management across nine states, and anticipates managing more capacity in SCE territory as the California market expands.

To learn more about how Catalyze serves as an Energy Transition Partner that enables customers to participate in clean energy, visit catalyze.com.

For more information on how Ampion simplifies Community Distributed Generation (CDG) to accelerate the energy transition, visit ampion.net.

About Ampion: Ampion provides turnkey subscription and revenue management solutions for renewable energy developers nationwide, simplifying the complex world of distributed generation. From prospect to payment, we maximize investor returns in a holistic way, optimizing revenue with a customer management platform purpose-built for community distributed generation. We’re industry veterans with the people, platform, and processes required to help developers and asset owners get the most out of their portfolios. Our clients choose us because we make their projects more predictable and more profitable, with better data insights, happier subscribers, and less risk. Learn more at ampion.net.

About Catalyze: Catalyze is a national Energy Transition Partner that develops, finances, owns, and operates integrated renewable assets, and combines its proprietary technology, financial strength, and battery and electric vehicle savvy to deliver standardized, yet configurable systems that meet their partners’ unique needs. These offerings enable commercial and industrial property owners, operating companies, and their customers to extract greater value from their assets, take increased responsibility and ownership of their energy profile, and ultimately become part of the clean energy transition. Catalyze owns two proprietary technologies – REenergyzeⓇ, an origination-to-operations software integration platform that helps accelerate and scale the nationwide adoption of commercial and industrial solar and storage, and SolarStrapⓇ, a proprietary mounting technology to install rooftop panels. To learn more, visit catalyze.com.