Grow Solar is a solar group-buying and education program that makes going solar easier. It’s offered by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA), the cities of Onalaska and La Crosse, and La Crosse County. Business and home owners in La Crosse Ccounty can pool their buying power to secure significant discounts that make installing solar more affordable.
Group buys work by aggregating the demand for solar in a community. The program passes on savings by purchasing in bulk while lowering solar installers’ “soft costs” by providing up-front education, community outreach, and promotion from participants. Everyone wins: property owners get discounted solar through a vetted and competitive process, local installers get business and encourag workforce development, and communities move closer toward achieving their sustainability goals.
Group Buys are important tools for increasing solar deployment in a market in a short period of time. By aggregating demand for solar, usually in a small geographic area, achieving economies of scale, home and business owners see lower prices for their solar array.
The MREA has facilitated over 65 Solar Group Buy programs around the Midwest over the past 12 years, educating over 14,500 individuals with our Solar Power Hour information sessions, and leading to more than 22.4 MW on over 3,400 properties.
How it works
A solar installer is selected through a competitive Request for Proposals process involving an advisory committee of community stakeholders.
Free, public information sessions (we call them “Solar Power Hours”) are hosted throughout the community over several months.
Local jurisdictions, organizations, volunteers, and MREA help spread the word to the community to invite as many people as possible to learn about and potentially invest in solar.
As more people decide to go solar, the price comes down for everyone.
Participants have a deadline to make a solar “go” or “no-go” decision. After that, the group buy pricing goes away.
Solar installations happen throughout the program timeline.
Sign up for a free site assessment or to get email updates about the program. You can also go to the Grow Solar La Crosse website to learn more and find out when the next Solar Power Hour sessions are scheduled.