About


Making solar energy accessible to all New Yorkers is an environmentally urgent issue. It is also a social justice issue. If we hope to address catastrophic climate change, we need solar to grow much faster in New York. And if we want to be fair, we need to make solar energy accessible to everyone who is paying for our state’s solar incentives.
The answer is “shared solar.”
The Energy Democracy Alliance Community Owned Shared Renewables Working Group, called Just build it
Just Build It is an NYEDA member network of organizations and individuals who are working to advance locally controlled, community-based and shared renewable energy projects across New York State. The Alliance convened Just Build It as a space for its members to learn from and support one another as they endeavor to achieve their project goals and collectively create an new energy paradigm for New York State that is diverse, carbon-free and democratic.

What does just build it do?
Just Build It is a community. Together we promote the exchange of ideas, best practices, lessons learned, cautionary tales and other knowledge-based resources that relate to the various practical aspects of planning and realizing community and shared renewable projects. We advocate for policies and regulations that support community ownership and development of shared solar projects that broaden access to this resource
At this conference and moving forward, topics Just Build It will cover include: project finance options, choosing a cloud customer management service, navigating interconnection, choosing your business model, to develop or partner – how do I decide?, and the shared solar development process, step by step.
Just Build It members communicate and share through bi-weekly conference calls, a listserv, events, webinars, and an online member intranet, https://energydemocracyny.org/communitysolar, that facilitates member exchange through forums, project displays, document libraries and other collaborative tools.