ELP Greenport: Scaling Community Solar

Climate Knowledge Initiative

In this case study, MBA students meet Wendy De Wolf, CBS ’18, founder of East Light Partners Greenport Solar, a 5-MW community solar project in Hudson, New York. ELP Greenport represents a new type of solar development that allows community members to share in the economic and environmental benefits of solar energy when they would otherwise be unable to due to their residential constraints. The case introduces students to the cost of solar energy, including how to calculate the levelized cost of energy, and the role of the policy makers and other stakeholders in the development of the solar industry.  Moreover, the case describes he growth of the solar industry, the technologies and products that have developed in the past decade, as well as the continued challenges for the solar industry as well as East Light Partners and other community solar projects. Students are asked to calculate the value of solar and assess whether the economics of community solar make it a scalable and viable model.