Frequently Asked Questions

We estimate that a family with an average CMP bill will save over $40,000 over the 25+ year life of a Little Solar Farm when compared to just sticking with CMP rates.  Our estimates are our best guess for how the purchase of a solar farm share will work out for you. The weather (which impacts solar production) and future CMP rates, which have recently exhibited extreme volatility, are of course entirely out of our control so these are just estimates, but we sure think there’s a good chance you can save as much as our estimates indicate (or more!).  Get started to see if Little Solar Farm shares are right for you.

We can help! We will use your current CMP bill as a starting point and then ask questions about your future plans (electric car coming soon? Heat pump being installed next year? Kids headed to college?). Ultimately choosing your share size is an exercise in ‘finding Goldilocks’. If you don’t buy enough shares, you will still periodically have a CMP bill above the monthly CMP minimum. If you buy too many shares, you may have excess banked credits that will expire if unused over a 12-month period. We’ll be heppy to work with you to find the right share size.

We encourage you to consult your tax advisor to confirm your eligibility, but if you are purchasing solar farm shares and use the electricity for your home, you should qualify for a tax credit as long as you have sufficient federal tax liability to take the credit.

The tax credit is not a cash rebate and you will need to have Federal income tax liability to take advantage of it. Suppose you purchase $10,000 worth of solar farm shares and the project is completed in 2024. When you complete your 2024 tax return, you are eligible for a 30% tax credit. If your federal income tax liability (before accounting for the tax credit) is $3,000 or greater, you can take the entire tax credit and lower your tax liability by $3,000. If you had, say, only $2,000 in federal income tax liability, you may take a $2,000 tax credit and save the other $1,000 for a future tax year. See IRS form 5695 and consult a tax professional for details.

Little Solar Farms are currently available to those in Central Maine Power (CMP) territory which covers most of southern and central Maine. If Central Maine Power provides your electricity, you are eligible.

If you will still live in CMP territory, you simply need to contact us and we can redirect your credits to your new CMP account. If you move outside CMP territory, you will need to sell your shares. In that case we’ll do our best to help find somebody who wants to buy them!

We think this is usually true. We are able to offer pricing that’s lower than most rooftop solar, and you won’t have to worry about the substantial expense of uninstalling and reinstalling the panels if you need to replace your roof. Plus very few roofs are able to align the panels facing south and with minimum obstructions for maximum production like we can in an open field, so even if you can find an installer who can offer you an affordable price per watt of panels, you may not get the same level of production as we can from those same panels (and ultimately it’s the electricity produced that matters). Credits on your CMP bill through net metering work the same as if the panels were on your roof.

Annual expenses include (but are not necessarily limited to) insurance, a CMP meter fee, repairs and maintenance, a management fee and an annual “reserve” assessment to ensure adequate resources to maintain and decommission the array at end-of-life. These may be offset by the sale of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs). The market for RECs is currently strong and we plan to lock in a 4-year agreement to sell them as we launch our first Little Solar Farm, but the future of this market is uncertain. Our estimates will include an annual expense estiimate, and in order to be extra cautious, we do not assume income from RECs in our estimates.

No! Our first Little Solar Farm is being installed at Wolf Pine Farm in Alfred. The panels will occupy only about 1/3 of an acre of land (on a 50-acre farm), and none of that land is land where farm owners Amy and Tom have ever grown vegetables (or ever plan to). The small footprint of our solar farms allows us to work with landowners (hopefully farmers) and find a spot that works for everybody. Many solar farms even graze sheep among the panels to keep vegetation under control – an ideal symbiosis between solar farm and food farm.

Probably not. Most of what you receive in the mail are ‘solar farms’ that are not offering you ownership. Rather they are built and paid for privately (often by an out-of-state entity), and they are offering to sell you electricity at a discount rate. For those not interested in investing in ownership like we offer, this can be a good option (albeit with nothing like the lifetime savings you could realize from our solar farm), but we recommend you do your homework carefully. Some are reputable and can be great to work with, but this is not true of all of them.