Clearway Community Solar (Danvers: sales, 2015, lease)

[John2375]

Does anyone have any experience with this??
My mother is of advanced age, and still lives alone- I try to be around as much as possible but of course that’s often not possible.
A couple years ago, she told me some “nice young man” knocked on the door and offered her a great deal on “community solar energy.” He said the national grid bill would go down and she’d be buying in to solar energy.. of course she said yes. When she told me, I was livid. I knew it was a scam.
I think she even spoke to the police about it, but they said it was a legitimate business.
Fast forward to today. I’d completely forgotten about it, until she said she was having to dip into her savings to pay their bill. I said “what?!” .. I was at her house today and asked to see this bill.
$17000!!!
How is this saving any money??!
I’m preparing to call on her behalf, but wondering if anyone has any insight into this group of elderly-preying scumbags.
Thx.

https://www.clearwaycommunitysolar.com/

[wolfgang239]

Unless she is running an aluminum smelter or commercial grow op it sounds like she was scammed. I'd consider gathering up all the documentation and contacting an attorney.

[Shrewsburried]

They function by selling customers credits, sourced from local solar 'farms' (i.e., "community solar"), to offset their utility usage. You effectively lease a portion of the local solar output, in lieu of installing your own solar array. I do believe they are a legitimate company, however, it seems their sales tactics are ... at best ... heavily misleading and are clearly failing to articulate what exactly customers are buying.

If your mother was charged $17K, it is either a mistake or she was clearly mislead into buying A LOT of credits/output. I would hire an attorney to review the contract and see what, if any, legal paths are available.

I do know some who have community solar credit contacts and, for them, it is netting a savings over the long term. However, it is a very convoluted path to net savings and really best suited for customers willing to 'deep dive' this stuff. Personally, I'd prefer to invest capital in my own solar panels, but I say this as someone with a big ol' south-facing hill and capital to invest. For others with incompatible properties (e.g., north facing, shaded) or limited capital, community solar might be a better path to solar production ... albeit in the form of credits.

[Eltee4]

Originally Posted by John2375

Does anyone have any experience with this??
My mother is of advanced age, and still lives alone- I try to be around as much as possible but of course that’s often not possible.
A couple years ago, she told me some “nice young man” knocked on the door and offered her a great deal on “community solar energy.” He said the national grid bill would go down and she’d be buying in to solar energy.. of course she said yes. When she told me, I was livid. I knew it was a scam.
I think she even spoke to the police about it, but they said it was a legitimate business.
Fast forward to today. I’d completely forgotten about it, until she said she was having to dip into her savings to pay their bill. I said “what?!” .. I was at her house today and asked to see this bill.
$17000!!!
How is this saving any money??!
I’m preparing to call on her behalf, but wondering if anyone has any insight into this group of elderly-preying scumbags.
Thx.

[url]https://www.clearwaycommunitysolar.com/[/url]

I registered an account here just to say THIS IS 100% FALSE INFORMATION. Clearway community solar is $0 to enroll and is $0 to cancel. THIS IS NOT HOW COMMUNITY SOLAR WORKS. People are spreading miss information.

This is how community solar works

1.) Whatever solar farm provider company does a SOFT credit check which DOESN'T EFFECT YOUR SCORE to make sure you aren't a piece of garbage that doesn't pay their bills lol

2.). You sign a DOCUMENT that states the discount percentage you're supposed to receive with your urn solar bill credits. Your solar bill credits are applied directly to your utility bill reducing the total amount you owe to the utility company by certain percentage.

3.) Once you opt in and you start receiving credits you'll receive one bill form your utility (Eversource, AEP, National Grid etc...) Whatever utility company you have for electric. IT WILL HAVE CREDITS FORM THE SOLAR FARM. IT WILL BE $0

NEXT you'll get a bill from the solar farm (Clearway, Arcadia, NRG) WHOEVER DEVELOPED THE FARM for 7-20% less then what your power would have been in the first place.


FOR Example: Your electric bill is $100... It's now $0 and your bill from Clearway is $93. That's it. That's all folks. No 77k no cancel fees just gool ole solar energy from a farm at a discounted price based on your electrical usage.

Unless this woman had to grow operation or something crazy going on with her bill to make her monthly utility bill 77,000 I'm pretty sure this is complete and total false information. Thank you I just wanted to share my thoughts on this.

[OutdoorLover]

I don't know anything about Clearway Community Solar, but I do know there are a LOT of utility scams out there and they prey disproportionately on immigrants and senior citizens. Here's an excerpt from a Danvers city senior center article from 2019: "While competition sounds like a good thing, in reality it has not been. As the Attorney General’s office has found [link], Massachusetts consumers in the competitive supply market paid $176.8 million more than they would have paid if they had received electric supply from their electric company during the two-year period from July 2015 to June 2017. Moreover, low-income customers make up a disproportionately large share of the competitive supply market and have lost even more from competitive supply than other consumers.

Not only are low-income customers losing more from this industry, they are being targeted along with people of color and immigrants. The CES companies are using aggressive and deceptive sales tactics to sign up these individuals, sometimes without their even knowing so. For example, they are going door-to-door and pressuring vulnerable consumers into contracts based on misinformation and false promises of lower prices. Worse, they are making it extremely (and expensive) for consumers to get out of their contracts."

See:
https://www.danversma.gov/beware-of-...rs-april-2019/