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Q Company & Project Details <br />How long have you been in business? How many installations have you done? Do you have references I can contact?• <br />Will I be able to visit the system? How can I show I’m participating?• <br />Will I be able to see online how much my subscription is producing for the life of my subscription agreement? • <br />How will I receive updates about the project? How will I be notified if something goes wrong? • <br />Who handles my subscription over time? Who do I call if I have questions?• <br />When do I need to sign a subscriber agreement? What kind of paperwork will I need to fill out? • <br />What types of PV modules will be used in the project? Why did you choose them?• <br />What will you do to ensure that the panels won’t become shaded by another structure in the future?• <br />Q Pricing & Compensation <br />Subscribers will be compensated for their share of the Community Solar Garden system’s output via a credit on <br />their utility bill. The credit will be made on a dollar per kilowatt hour produced ($/kWh) basis for most utilities. <br />Subscribers in Xcel Energy’s service territory will be compensated at the Applicable Retail Rate (ARR) for the <br />duration of their subscription, which may last up to 25 years. The ARR is calculated by Xcel Energy by dividing the <br />previous year’s revenues by sales for each customer class; the ARR will be updated every year. Subscribers should <br />verify their service class (i.e., residential service, small general service, or general service) prior to subscribing. The <br />current ARRs plus renewable energy credit (REC) payments by Community Solar Garden size are listed below. <br />Most operators make assumptions that the ARR will change over time when they estimate a subscriber’s potential <br />return on investment. The retail rate trends over the past 20 to 25 years are a good rule of thumb to ground truth <br />these numbers. An assessment by Xcel Energy indicates that the ARRs across all customer classes have increased an <br />average of 2.6 to 2.9 percent per year since 1992. <br />The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has jurisdiction over Community Solar Garden rates for Xcel Energy and <br />other investor-owned utilities. The Commission may change the community solar garden subscription rates for <br />future projects, but community solar gardens forming under the current ARR structure will receive the ARRs in <br />place at the time the solar energy is generated for the life of the community solar garden. <br />RECs stands for Renewable Energy Credits, which represent the renewable attributes of solar and other renewable <br />energy generation. Operators in Xcel Energy’s Community Solar Garden program may elect to sell the RECs to the <br />utility. In the case of Xcel Energy customers, the compensation will be paid directly to the subscriber based on the <br />size of the garden as described in the table above. If the RECs are sold, subscribers cannot market themselves as <br />“solar powered,” as the green attributes for subscription are assigned to the owner of the RECs. This is consistent <br />with Green-E best practices to avoid double counting (see link in More Resources section). <br />2017 Xcel Energy Bill Credit Rates <br />Service Type <br />Standard ARR <br />(Applicable <br />Retail Rate) <br />Enhanced ARR <br />for gardens > <br />250 kW (+ $.02) <br />Enhanced ARR <br />for gardens ≤ <br />250 kW (+ $.03) <br />Value of <br />Solar <br />Residential Service ($/kWh)$0.13310 $0.15310 $0.16310 $0.10330 <br />Small General Service ($/kWh)$0.12798 $0.14798 $0.15798 $0.10330 <br />General Service ($/kWh)$0.10296 $0.12296 $0.13296 $0.10330 <br />Renewable Energy Credit Ownership Customer owns Xcel owns Xcel owns Xcel owns