Have you ever walked out of your house on a sunny day and thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could harness the sun’s energy to power my home?”

OK, maybe you haven’t! But we’re sure you’ve noticed solar panels on top of houses in your community, and maybe you’ve even seen a solar farm here or there while driving down a rural Kansas highway. 

Whether or not you’ve considered solar as a part of your home’s energy mix, we here at Wheatland Electric Cooperative, Inc., are excited to share that harnessing the power of the sun is now more accessible than you think!

Starting Jan. 1, 2024, we’re making COMMUNITY SOLAR available to residential co-op members just like you! 

This new cooperative program allows homeowners or renters to subscribe to solar shares at $5 per share — equivalent to 125 kWh or two solar panels. 

Community Solar subscribers will receive an adjustment for electricity generated by their share of the system — more on that later. The typical homeowner who chooses to invest 50% of their home’s annual electricity usage is estimated to receive a yearly net savings of $138! And that’s after taking the cost of shares into account! 

Community Solar programs like ours harness natural energy from the sun and cost less than installing a solar array at your home. As a homeowner, participating in Community Solar eliminates the worry of zoning restrictions or petitioning your homeowners’ association.

And even if you don’t own your home, not to worry because renters can participate, too. In fact, any residential member who pays an electric bill can participate. (Prepay Power members are not eligible.)

Starting January 2024, sign up for Community Solar, which will be available on a first-come, first-served basis and requires a one-year contract. Members will subscribe to solar shares from the largest commercial solar farm in the state, Johnson Corner Solar Project, located in Stanton County.

Johnson Corner is operated by Sunflower Electric Power Corp., our wholesale power supplier. Sunflower generates the electricity that we, your distribution cooperative, deliver to you.

We’re proud to partner with Sunflower on this innovative and cutting-edge program. The energy from Sunflower’s solar farm is distributed to the power grid, just like energy produced from other sources such as coal, wind, natural gas and more. 

By participating in Community Solar, you, our electric co-op member, are literally harnessing the power of the sun. In return, your energy credits will reflect the performance of your subscribed number of solar shares, based on the amount of power generated by Johnson Corner and the market revenue from the power sold into the energy market each month. 

Participating in Community Solar eliminates the large up-front investment and maintenance costs and concerns that can be a hassle for those who own and maintain their own residential rooftop solar system. With Community Solar, we take care of installation, maintenance and insurance fees, making it easy for you to participate! 

We will share more information about Community Solar and how you can participate beginning January 2024 in Kansas Country Living, on our website, with our local media partners, and across social media — so stay tuned to sign up! 

Why Community Solar?

• Why participate in WEC’s Community Solar starting in 2024? One contract, no large initial investment, no maintenance costs, and all the benefits!
• The flexibility of community solar is a great option for co-op members interested in solar generation, but not in the ownership hassles of their own system.
• Participating in Community Solar allows subscribers to avoid the upfront cost, hassle and maintenance of rooftop solar.
• Nothing is installed on your roof and no adjustments are made to your service.
• If a subscriber moves to a new house within Wheatland’s service territory, their subscription may transfer to their new service.
• Subscribers can cancel at any time, however once the agreement has been terminated, a member may not participate again for one year.
• Work with your trusted energy partner throughout the whole process.
• No processing, administration or other fees.