Arcadia is teaming up with Google and EDPR to advance an equitable energy future

At Arcadia, we’re all about connecting the clean energy future — and that vision includes everyone. As we continue expanding our own community solar management at the state level, our latest partnership allows us to continue our work on an even larger scale. We’ve teamed up with Google, EDPR NA Distributed Generation, and Elevate to implement a novel solution addressing the energy cost burden faced by over 30 million US households.

As Google’s Senior Energy Lead Sana Ouoji put it, “We are excited to have Arcadia and Elevate join this partnership and help us deliver on our program goals in the communities where it was built to serve.”

We’re excited too. With this new initiative, we’re continuing our work to make the benefits (and savings) of solar accessible to historically disadvantaged communities. In fact, our co-founder and CEO Kiran Bhatraju said it best:

“This partnership exemplifies our commitment to cheaper, cleaner energy access. We’re thrilled that our technology will play a critical role in bringing the benefits of solar to a wider range of households who previously couldn’t access them.”

The Challenge: Energy Cost Burden

More often than not, US households that want to take part in clean energy don’t have access to state or utility programs for community or rooftop solar. Many of these same households are low-income, which means they would benefit most from clean energy savings. Today, corporate sustainability has evolved to where broader social impact is essential to carbon goal-setting. As Google makes progress toward their 2030 goal to operate entirely on 24/7 carbon-free energy, they’re also aiming to extend the benefits of their energy investments to underserved communities.

The Solution: “Synthetic” Community Solar

To help achieve these goals, Google and EDPR have joined forces with Arcadia to build approximately 80 community-scale solar projects across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. The coolest part? The companies have committed that a minimum of 10% of the solar portfolio's revenue will be annually redirected as utility bill savings to low- and middle-income households. This will help an estimated 25,000 households that are burdened by high energy costs. Arcadia’s role is to use our technology to distribute those savings onto the utility bills of qualifying households who live in communities near where the solar projects are built. 

At Arcadia, we’ll play a central operating role for the portfolio to seamlessly deliver financial savings directly onto participating households’ monthly energy bills throughout a 15-year program. And because we’ll help Google and EDPR leverage our proprietary technology, the partnership won’t rely on any utility-administered programs for valuing solar energy or distributing credits or savings. This means the market for this “synthetic” version of community solar is open nationally, and not constrained by individual state or utility policy choices.

That’s right: nationally. In short, this innovative new partnership will make the benefits of solar more accessible to consumers who need it the most. And just as important, corporates can now partner with Arcadia to further their sustainability goals across the key dimensions of additionality, urgency, affordability, and environmental justice. This marks a significant leap towards a more equitable clean energy future, and Arcadia is excited to continue innovating and partnering to develop even more ways to expand solar access.