Neighborhood Sun worked with Enterprise Community Development (ECD) on a campaign to engage its lower-income residents regarding the opportunity to subscribe to one of four community solar farms that are located on ECD’s affordable housing properties in D.C., all powered by the Potomac Edison Power Company (Pepco D.C.). The majority of each community solar farm’s generated electricity is reserved for households that qualify as low- or moderate-income (LMI). LMI residents who live in the four affordable housing communities on which the solar farms are being constructed, as well as any other ECD residents and local LMI households in the utility region, benefit from a 50% discount on the solar credits generated by their share of the community solar farm. Throughout the year, Neighborhood Sun held 12 community events on-site across ECD communities to meet residents where they’re at and make it convenient to learn about this opportunity to save money and support solar located right on their building or parking lot.

Built on 16 acres of repurposed landfill and dedicated entirely to serving low- and moderate-income residents (LMI), Oaks Landfill is the largest project of its kind in the nation. By delivering cleaner air, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and electricity that’s cheaper than fossil fuels, the project helps ease the burden of rising electricity bills faces by low-income families. Thanks to Neighborhood Sun’s no-cost, no-installation community solar model, LMI residents local to this community solar farm can save 25% on their monthly electricity bills—an especially meaningful win for communities historically excluded from clean-energy options. This community solar farm also happens to be located in the same county where Neighborhood Sun was founded in Maryland.

What if every school could power itself entirely with clean, affordable solar energy—and share that power with its surrounding community? That vision is now a reality at Elmer A. Henderson: A Johns Hopkins Partnership School in Baltimore, thanks to our collaboration with the Climate Access Fund.

An 800 kW rooftop solar array—more than 1,000 panels—now supplies renewable energy not only to the school, but also to nearby families, staff, and neighbors. Up to 200 low- and moderate-income households are poised to receive locally-generated solar power at a 25% discount. The project also serves as a hands-on training site through the Climate Access Fund’s partnership with Civic Works, helping prepare community members for careers in solar. This community solar farm is expected to deliver over $1 Million in savings over its 35-year lifetime.

The Community Advocacy Board ensures open, two-way communication with our stakeholders. We meet quarterly to share company updates, gather subscriber feedback, answer questions, offer advocacy opportunities, and host subscriber-requested presentations. In 2024, sessions included a breakdown of our B Corp score, peer-led talks from subscribers on promoting community solar, a discussion on third-party energy versus community solar, and a presentation on citizen advocacy and equitable environmental policy. Because many subscribers are clean energy advocates, we invite them to share their expertise. Recordings of all presentations are available on Neighborhood Sun’s YouTube channel.

Another key stakeholder group is our investors, without whom none of our impactful work would be possible. Neighborhood Sun raised $2,293,777 from thousands of investors in our latest community fundraising round. These investors included everyone from subscribers to employees to capital funds and everyday people who believe in the future of solar. We are incredibly proud that our community solar subscribers believe in the company enough to put their own money behind it. Rather than just focusing on big-ticket venture capital firms, we think it’s important to give all our stakeholders the chance to “get their share of the sun” by democratizing investing through our Wefunder campaign, where anyone can invest for as little as $250. Many of our investors are also folks who wish they could be community solar subscribers but may not have access in their states yet. At the end of each year, we have a stakeholder meeting, where we invite all of our stakeholders to review our annual performance, wins, and challenges.

Our people and culture are central to our success. In 2024, Zoe and Alison joined our customer development team to ensure we can provide the highest level of customer care as our community continues to grow. We also welcomed Meirav Azoulay to our Board of Directors. As a small company, our strength lies in trust, adaptability, and shared responsibility—each team member is empowered to act in the best interest of our customers, our communities, and the planet. We offer competitive benefits, including mental health support, climate education, and paid volunteer time.  We continue to build a team where diversity is valued, respected, and meaningfully centered in discussions. In our latest Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Survey, 100% of respondents said they feel respected by colleagues and 89% agreed that their unique background and identity are valued at Neighborhood Sun. There will always be more to learn from one another, so we remain committed to diversity as a core strength of our company—not a checkbox.

Our team loves volunteering in the community, but it’s extra special when we get to show up for one of our community partners. During Earth Month, we joined Blue Water Baltimore to help plant street trees in the Belair-Edison and 4×4 Communities along Belair Rd, a street that previously had almost no tree cover whatsoever. Blue Water Baltimore’s mission is to restore the quality of Baltimore’s rivers, streams and Harbor to foster a healthy environment, a strong economy and thriving communities. We avidly support that mission and were excited to help out and get our hands a little dirty. In this photo from left to right, you can see Natalia Franco (Program Manager), Emily Tokarowski (V.P. of Marketing), Jovita Ross (Customer Communications Manager), Sunny Xie (Accounting Manager), and Gary Skulnik (Founder and C.E.O.) working together to plant one of the trees.