Community solar lets a commercial account subscribe to a portion of a local solar project and receive a credit on its utility bill for the energy that subscribed share produces. There is no equipment installed on your property and no upfront capital. In Maryland specifically, the economics for commercial subscribers typically work out to a ten to fifteen percent discount on the offset portion of the utility bill, with subscription terms ranging from twenty to twenty-five years.

This article covers the mechanics of community solar in Maryland: how the bill credit actually appears, which utility territories support it, what subscription terms to negotiate, and how community solar compares to on-site solar for commercial properties. The Maryland community solar program is one of the most mature in the country, and the economics for commercial subscribers have stabilized into a well-understood pattern.

What is community solar?

Community solar (also called "community renewable energy" or "shared solar") is a state-authorized program that allows electricity customers to subscribe to a portion of an off-site solar project and receive a credit on their utility bill for the share of production they have subscribed to.

The structure exists because traditional rooftop or on-site solar has eligibility limits: not every property has suitable roof or land, not every property owner has the capital or the building tenure to justify a multi-year payback, and renters historically had no access to solar at all. Community solar opens solar economics to any electric customer in the supporting utility's territory, regardless of property characteristics.

Maryland authorized community solar through a 2015 pilot program and made it permanent in 2023. The program is administered by the Maryland Public Service Commission, with project capacity allocated through periodic enrollment windows. As of 2026 the program supports several hundred megawatts of operational community solar capacity across BGE, PEPCO, Delmarva, and Potomac Edison service territories.

How it works on a commercial bill

The mechanics are straightforward once you understand the bill credit structure:

  1. You subscribe to a defined share of a community solar project (for example, ten percent of a one megawatt project, or whatever subscription size matches your usage).
  2. The project produces electricity and feeds it into the utility grid. Your subscribed share of that production is calculated monthly.
  3. The utility credits your account at the credit value set by Maryland PSC rules. The credit appears as a line item on your monthly utility statement, reducing your delivery and supply charges by the credit value of your share's production that month.
  4. The project operator (the subscriber organization) bills you separately for your subscription fee, set lower than the credit value to produce the net discount.

The utility continues to deliver electricity normally. Community solar does not change your physical service, your meter, your reliability, or your relationship with the utility. It changes only the math on the monthly bill, where the bill credit reduces what you owe and the subscription fee (a smaller amount) is paid to the project operator.

Which utilities offer it in Maryland

Maryland community solar projects must operate within a single utility service territory and serve subscribers within that territory. The active utility footprints as of 2026 are:

  • BGE (Baltimore Gas & Electric) — mature program, significant project capacity, well-established subscriber base.
  • PEPCO (Potomac Electric Power Company) — Maryland territory only; DC has its own community solar framework through DC Sustainable Energy Utility.
  • Delmarva Power — Eastern Shore Maryland and parts of Delaware; growing project capacity with strong commercial demand.
  • Potomac Edison — Western Maryland; smaller program than the other three but operational.

Your community solar options are limited to projects within the territory of the utility serving your account. If your facility is on BGE, you can only subscribe to BGE-territory community solar projects. If you operate multiple facilities across utility territories, each facility's subscription is handled separately.

What discount businesses can expect

The discount on community solar in Maryland is typically ten to fifteen percentof the value of the credit you receive. That means if your subscription generates one thousand dollars of bill credit in a given month, you pay the project operator something on the order of $850 to $900 for that month's subscription, netting $100 to $150 in savings.

The discount applies to the subscription portion of your bill, not the entire bill. If your subscription is sized to offset sixty percent of your annual usage, the discount applies to that sixty percent. The remaining forty percent of your bill is billed normally by the utility.

Typical commercial subscription sizing covers sixty to one hundred percent of historic annual usage, depending on the program's rules and the project's available capacity. Sizing below sixty percent is generally not worth the administrative overhead. Sizing above one hundred percent is usually disallowed by program rules because the credit would exceed your bill.

10 to 15%Net discount on the offset portion of the bill, typical range for commercial community solar subscriptions in Maryland.

Subscription performance risk

Project performance risk is the most-asked and least-discussed question in community solar. Projects can underperform expected output due to weather, equipment failure, soiling, or operational issues. The subscription terms determine how that risk is allocated between the project operator and the subscribers.

Three common subscription structures exist:

1. Production-pass-through (highest risk)

Your bill credit and your subscription fee both scale directly with actual project production. If the project produces fifteen percent below expectation in a given month, your credit drops fifteen percent but so does your subscription fee. The net discount remains the same in percentage terms, but the absolute dollar savings shrinks. The subscriber bears the downside of underperformance.

2. Performance floor (moderate risk)

The agreement guarantees a minimum credit value or production level. If the project falls below that floor, the operator true-ups the shortfall (sometimes from operator funds, sometimes from a reserve account). This protects against catastrophic underperformance but usually does not protect against routine weather-driven variability.

3. Fixed-fee subscription (lowest risk for subscriber)

The subscriber pays a fixed annual fee, and the project operator bears all production risk. The subscriber receives whatever bill credit the project actually generates. This structure is uncommon in current Maryland market terms.

For commercial subscribers, we recommend negotiating for a performance floor at minimum, and ideally for a contractual guarantee of a specific net annual discount range rather than just a percentage of production. The performance floor is the difference between a stable, predictable cost benefit and a variable, weather-dependent one.

Who can participate

Maryland community solar is open to any electric customer in a supporting utility's territory, including:

  • Commercial property owners and operators
  • Multifamily building owners (for common-area accounts)
  • Nonprofit organizations
  • Schools and public entities
  • Religious organizations
  • Industrial facilities
  • Residential customers (treated under separate program rules)

Subscription availability fluctuates with project capacity. New projects open enrollment windows when they reach commercial operation. Existing projects sometimes have subscriber turnover that opens capacity. Working with an advisor who tracks project availability across the relevant territory simplifies the process of finding a viable subscription opportunity.

Implementation timeline

Enrollment from initial conversation to first bill credit typically runs thirty to ninety days, depending on project status and utility processing time. The steps are:

  1. Project selection (1 to 2 weeks): identify projects in your utility territory with available capacity matching your subscription size needs. Evaluate subscription terms across available options.
  2. Subscription agreement negotiation (2 to 4 weeks): contract terms including subscription size, term length, performance protections, exit provisions, and pricing escalators.
  3. Utility processing (2 to 6 weeks): the utility processes the subscription enrollment, links your account to the project, and configures the bill credit mechanism.
  4. First bill credit (1 to 2 billing cycles): the first credit appears on the next or second-next utility bill following enrollment activation.

Community solar vs on-site solar

For commercial properties evaluating both options, the comparison depends heavily on property characteristics and capital strategy.

On-site solar advantages

  • Larger net savings over the equipment life (typically twenty to forty percent of the offset portion of the bill versus ten to fifteen for community solar)
  • Federal Investment Tax Credit available (thirty percent base, plus potential bonuses for domestic content and energy community designations)
  • Asset ownership produces depreciation benefits via MACRS
  • No subscription escalator: the savings stay constant in real terms over the equipment life

On-site solar disadvantages

  • Significant upfront capital ($1.50 to $2.50 per watt installed for commercial-scale systems)
  • Requires suitable roof or land with appropriate orientation and shading
  • Building tenure matters: short-term leaseholders typically cannot justify the payback period
  • Ongoing maintenance, monitoring, and eventual replacement responsibilities

Community solar advantages

  • No upfront capital
  • No equipment on your property
  • Works for any property type (rented, leased, owned)
  • Subscription is portable: cancel if you move, or transfer terms
  • Faster to implement (thirty to ninety days versus six to twelve months for on-site)

Community solar disadvantages

  • Smaller net savings (ten to fifteen percent versus on-site twenty-plus percent on the offset portion)
  • No tax credit benefits accrue to the subscriber (they go to the project owner)
  • Subscription escalators in most agreements: the subscription fee rises annually with a defined index
  • Performance risk shared with the project operator depending on contract structure

When community solar makes sense

For commercial properties without the capital, the roof, or the tenure for on-site solar, community solar is the right answer. Multifamily portfolios, leased commercial space, public entities operating under capital constraint, and nonprofits without tax appetite are the most natural fit.

For properties that could host on-site solar, the comparison is more nuanced. The capital, the federal tax credits, and the long-term savings often favor on-site, but the timeline, the ongoing responsibility, and the property-tie do not. Many commercial portfolios end up with a mixed strategy: on-site solar on the buildings where it makes sense, community solar on the buildings where it does not.

For a fuller read on the engagement process, eligibility evaluation, and contract negotiation specific to Maryland community solar, see the Community Solar Enrollment service page. The page covers the full subscription evaluation workflow we run for commercial clients.