In 2025, alongside our partners, we advanced projects nationwide while continuing to invest in local organizations through our Impact Partners. We’re proud to share that this work translated into $2.1 million donated to 32 community organizations, supporting expanded access to education, stronger local agriculture, and reduced energy costs.
Check out our Impact Partners Year in Review:
These investments are not adjacent to our work. They are core to how we develop and deliver projects. We know the strongest projects are built through trust, collaboration, and long-term commitment to the communities they serve.
We look forward to continuing our impact work for our Tilden Solar Project, which reached COD in November 2025, marking another step forward in delivering reliable clean energy alongside durable community benefits.
Learn more about Tilden Solar, a 182MW project that sits atop a historic coal mine in Randolph County, Illinois.
In 2026, our focus remains clear: • Continuing to build projects grounded in strong local partnerships • Investing in communities for the long term, not just the lifecycle of a project • Delivering clean energy solutions that create shared value for all stakeholders
We’re grateful for the collaboration, trust, and shared purpose that defined 2025. We look forward to continuing this work together in the year ahead.
From Conversations to Impact: Insights from Workforce Development Partners Driving Progress in Clean Energy
Community Impact |
By Adaora Ifebigh
Our governing philosophy toward community impact: Over the past five years, Sol has significantly increased our community investment funding and expanded our network of community partners to more than 30 organizations working to advance community resilience across the country. As our work expands, we continue to be guided by the belief that working with and in partnership with communities where our projects are located relies heavily on the acknowledgement that our partners understand their local context and that to create sustainable opportunities that serve communities for the long term requires listening, learning and adapting insights from communities themselves.
How We Approach the Work
Adaora Ifebigh, Sol Systems' Senior Director for Community Impact, speaks at 2024 Climate Week in New York, New York.
Founded in 2008, Sol Systems (Sol) leverages its platform as a national leader in renewable energy to work together with its customers and partners to accelerate America’s clean energy future and invest in local communities
To deliver on this mission, Sol has created a unique Infrastructure + ImpactTM approach. This approach ensures that when our partners and we execute projects and transactions, we commit funding to local community organizations that lead initiatives to enhance community impact and restore the land and natural habitats around our projects.
These integrated programs are designed to benefit under-resourced communities and those disproportionately affected by environmental pollution, while also incorporating best practices to minimize our ecological footprint during construction.
Sol’s impact approach focuses on engaging with and investing in trusted partner organizations embedded in their communities. This engagement strengthens the community’s ability to benefit from a more inclusive energy infrastructure.
Since 2020, Sol has partnered with grassroots community organizations to implement impact initiatives in regions surrounding our solar projects. Through dedicated community investment funds, we’ve supported organizations across the Eastern Seaboard and the Midwest—including in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Washington D.C., Massachusetts, Nebraska, Maine, New York, Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. These investments have enabled local partners to deliver energy efficiency and home repair programs, establish solar-plus-storage community resilience hubs, provide job training and education, and offer wraparound support services.
Through this effort, Sol gained valuable insights and lessons that will guide our future work and deepen our impact. We believe that sharing these learnings is essential to advancing community-centered practices across the energy industry. By doing so, we aim to foster industry-wide learning, strengthen collaboration with our partners, and continue driving progress toward a more impactful and sustainable energy future for all
Insights from the Community: Grassroots Perspectives on Workforce Development
Our approach to community investments developed as we learned from our community partners and adapted our approach to suit their needs. Through periodic conversations and an established program reporting process, we gained several programmatic insights that will help us adapt as we move forward with our community impact programs. Our workforce development partners highlighted challenges in retaining trainees, both before and after graduation. To be successful, trainees require wraparound support services that increase workplace inclusion, reduce financial and logistical obstacles, and increase trainees’ ability to adapt to new job environments..
Our partnership with GRID Alternatives Mid-Atlantic and PowerCorps PHL demonstrated that robust support services not only enhance recruitment but are also crucial for boosting graduation rates and job retention.
Life-management and workplace counseling: GRID Alternatives provides counseling services and life-management training so trainees can discuss everyday challenges and receive tools to manage workplace expectations and the activities of daily living, including shopping for groceries and keeping up with doctors’ appointments. This support, in addition to the primary classroom curriculum, helps trainees better navigate external life factors that can be obstacles to following through on workplace commitments.
Financial management training: The ability to manage finances, including the stipends provided through the training program, also can indicate whether a person will complete the training program. GRID helps trainees—many of whom have never opened a bank account before— navigate the direct deposit process
Transportation support: Transportation can impact a trainee’s ability to finish a workforce development program. To address this, PowerCorps PHL offered transportation services to their trainees. This included helping trainees obtain a driver’s license and providing funds to ride public transportation or pay for parking
Wraparound support is crucial to guaranteeing that participants finish a program and retain jobs or internships successfully. For organizations like GRID and PowerCorps PHL, the ability to offer wraparound support services to their trainees helped them improve recruiting, retention, and was a fundamental factor in graduation rates
Carrying the Work Forward: Applying Lessons to Future Partnerships
Research over the past two decades has shown the effectiveness of wraparound support across many domains. Specifically, as it relates to some of our community partnerships, this support is effective across a range of important youth outcomes such as educational achievement and self-sufficiency. Informed by the lessons learned through our grassroots partnerships, Sol has made providing wraparound support a key pillar of our community investment strategy that focuses on community resilience. We aim to support grassroots organizations by funding wraparound programs that are key to successful implementation of their core program activities.
Sol is committed to building and strengthening partnerships with community organizations so that our clean energy initiatives remain community-focused and meet our land stewardship and energy supply goals. We look forward to sharing new lessons learned as our work progresses.
A Breakthrough Year for Agrivoltaics at Sol Systems
Blog |
By The Sol Systems Team
2025 marked a pivotal year for agrivoltaics—the practice of simultaneously using land for both solar energy generation and agricultural purposes—at Sol Systems.
Our teams have been focused on understanding and demonstrating how solar infrastructure can complement agriculture. This year, that work accelerated across our portfolio, advancing a vision where clean energy and productive land use operate hand in hand.
At our Prairie Creek project, we launched sheep grazing to support vegetation management while providing a secondary revenue stream for local producers.
At our Eldorado site, we also planted Kernza®, a deep-rooted perennial grain, creating one of the largest row-crop agrivoltaics projects in the country. Kernza® is a perennial grain developed by The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. Unlike annual grains like wheat, which must be replanted each year, Kernza’s deep roots stay in the ground year after year, reducing inputs and tillage, protecting soil health and water quality, and capturing carbon deep underground.
Our research partnerships continue to deepen, too. Through ongoing collaboration with the American Farmland Trust, we enhance our understanding of soil health, land restoration, and long-term ecological impacts of solar development. Together, these efforts helped us better evaluate how strategically designed solar infrastructure can restore land, support farm operations, and generate lasting community value.
As we look ahead to 2026, Sol Systems is entering the next chapter of this work. In the coming year, we will harvest and process our first Kernza crop, marking a significant milestone in the economic and environmental potential of perennial grains on solar sites. We also will establish new specialty-crop pilot plots in collaboration with FoodWorks, enabling the production and distribution of fresh produce grown directly on our sites. These pilots will help us design models that support local food systems while maximizing land productivity.
Clean energy infrastructure has the potential to deliver long-term value for the communities and landscapes where we operate. The progress we made this year brings us closer to that future, and we look forward to expanding this work in 2026 and beyond.
From Learning to Leadership: How STEM Education Is Powering the Clean Energy Future
Blog |
By Anna Toenjes
By Anna Toenjes, Associate VP of Impact & Business Development, Sol Systems
When we think about what it will take to truly transform our energy system, we can’t just picture solar panels and transmission lines. It’s sixth graders racing tiny solar cars in a school gym, a robotics club meeting after hours in a rural county where opportunities sometimes feel far away, and kids crawling through an electric truck’s gear tunnel, asking a million questions.
Our recent community impact webinar, From Learning to Leadership: Building America’s Clean Energy Future Through STEM Education showcased that mix of curiosity, access, and hands-on learning when two incredible 4-H leaders: Aaron Dufelmeier in Morgan County, Illinois, and Taylor Hartman from Stokes County, North Carolina joined members of the Sol team to explore how early exposure to STEM education can prepare a new generation for leadership in the energy industry. Together, we unpacked how large-scale clean energy projects can seed local STEM opportunities and build the workforce our future grid will depend on.
Infrastructure + ImpactTM , by Design At Sol Systems, we talk a lot about “Infrastructure + Impact.” As Adaora Ifebigh, Senior Director of Community Impact at Sol Systems shared during the webinar, it really is as simple – and as ambitious – as it sounds. “If we’re going to build the clean energy infrastructure this country needs, we must also ensure that host communities share in the benefits.”
Energy, historically, has been extractive. Power – literally and economically – has often been taken from one place to serve another. Our mission at Sol is to help rewrite that story.
For us, that means asking:
Who is hired to build and maintain these projects?
How are we being good stewards of the land while our projects are there?
What future pathways are we creating for young people who grow up alongside this infrastructure?
That’s where STEM education – and our partners – come in.
A STOKE'd for STEM camper explores the gear tunnel of a Rivian truck in Stoke County, North Carolina.
Inspiring the Next Generation of Clean Energy Workers Clean energy development, installation, management, and innovation needs a workforce, from technicians and engineers to project managers, agrivoltaics specialists, and educators. We don’t have to – and we shouldn’t – wait until post-secondary education to start that conversation with today’s students. That’s why Sol Systems seeks out trusted community partners who already have deep roots in communities where our projects are located. In this case, that’s 4-H.
Taylor, who grew up in North Carolina 4-H and now leads 4-H in Stokes County, admitted she wasn’t originally a “STEM person.” But she saw the demand from local kids and the lack of resources in schools for robotics programs.
Through our work with Erik Nielsen and his team at Rivian, her team launched:
A solar-and-robotics summer camp that included a visit to a local solar site, hands-onsolar car builds, and an EV vehicle demo.
A new 4-H robotics club that now meets monthly, using kits purchased with the grant.
In Illinois, Aaron and his team leveraged our partnership to revive and scale a Junior Solar Sprint curriculum statewide.
With Sol-funded materials, they:
Trained 4-H youth development staff to deliver solar curriculum.
Worked with a local middle school where 24 eighth graders spent nine sessions learning how photovoltaics work, designing and building solar cars, and racing them in front of the entire school.
After the program, half of the students expressed interest in careers in solar or engineering, and 75% said they now see the importance of clean energy for electricity generation. That’s not just abstract “awareness.” That’s kids starting to picture themselves in this transition.
The Speed of Trust None of this happens overnight. Aaron joked that patience has been key; conversations with the Sol team started a few years ago. Taylor admitted that when a DC-based solar company (Sol) first emailed “little Stokes County,” her first reaction was, "Why us?
What changed things for Taylor was trust:
Rivian's Ted Foos helps a 4-H camper build a solar-powered racecar at NCSU 4-H Extension's STOKE'd for STEM summer camp.
Understanding Sol Systems’ ethos with 18 years of experience
Seeing concrete examples from other communities, like Morgan County, IL which started Seeing concrete examples from other communities, like Morgan County, IL which started
Being invited to co-design the programs based on what their youth needed most
As Adaora likes to say, “You can only proceed at the speed of trust.” We bring ideas and resources, but local partners know their communities best. Our most successful programs are the ones where we listen first and adjust our plans accordingly.
One theme that resonated with both Taylor and Aaron was the call to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Taylor embraced STEM programming she wasn’t originally versed in, growing and learning together with her students. Aaron encouraged other nonprofits not just to ask “Why?” but “Why not?” when new partnership opportunities appear.
Ultimately, that’s the heart of this work. Sol is asking communities, companies, and kids to imagine a different kind of energy system: one that is cleaner, fairer, and more deeply rooted in local opportunity. If this is what “learning to leadership” looks like after just a year or two of collaboration, we can’t wait to see what these communities build next.
Deep Roots Farm: Equitable Pathways to Regenerative Farming
Blog |
By Henry Yusem
Sol Systems (Sol) is proud to support Deep Roots Farm through the Sol Profit Share initiative. This program has allowed solar energy system owners participating in Sol Systems’ Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SREC) aggregation solutions, including homeowners, businesses, and institutions, to choose a Sol Profit Share contract. With this contract, customers have received a guaranteed fixed payment per SREC, and they’ve also shared additional profits when SREC prices increase. Additionally, Sol donates 5% of the net Sol Profit Share profits to non-profit organizations that support renewable energy access and sustainability efforts. Previous recipients of Sol Profit Share include DC Greens and A Farm Less Ordinary.
With the 2024 proceeds from the Sol Profit Share initiative, Sol is supporting Deep Roots Farm’s work serving under-resourced communities in Washington, DC and Prince George’s County, MD with sustainably grown produce.
A Dual Mission
Deep Roots Farm is a Black woman-owned and operated farm located in Upper Marlboro, MD that is focused on practicing regenerative, holistic, and humane agriculture. The farm uses regenerative farming techniques to help both mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. By farming in a conscientious manner, they are able to regenerate topsoil, promote biodiversity, and conserve water, improving the resilience of local food systems.
In addition to implementing sustainable farming practices, Deep Roots Farm supports local communities by providing fresh produce and creating educational opportunities for people who may not have access to otherwise. Residents in the greater DC area can buy produce from Deep Roots Farm at local farmers' markets or through their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. A CSA provides members with weekly baskets of seasonal goods while giving farmers steady income and stronger connections with the community. Deep Roots Farm donates any unused CSA produce to local organizations.
To further their educational impact, Deep Roots Farm offers tours to local school groups to teach them about regenerative agriculture. In the future, the farm plans to offer trainings on sustainable farming techniques to cultivate the next generation of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) farmers. Deep Roots Farm is one of the just 1.4% farms in the United States which are Black owned and is working to introduce more BIPOC individuals to farming.
Taking Action
Deep Roots Farm plans to use their Sol Profit Share funding to insulate their barn for the winter, decreasing the farm’s monthly energy consumption—one of the highest monthly expenditures for the farm—, simultaneously lowering its climate impact and increasing its cost savings. Grant opportunities to offset higher electricity prices are sparse due to the cancellation of the US Department of Agriculture’s “Climate Smart” program. Sol’s donation provides an alternative source of funding to help Deep Roots Farm minimize this impact and continue to work on their sustainability projects.
To learn more about how Deep Roots Farm is practicing sustainable agriculture and impacting their community, please visit their website at: https://www.deeprootsfarm.us/.
Opening Doors to Opportunity: Jacksonville Promise and Lincoln Land Community College
Insights |
By Catherine Heiger
Our Prairie Creek Solar Project in Morgan County, Illinois, reflects our vision that renewable energy projects should generate lasting community benefits. Our Impact partners, now a year into their funding, create local jobs, support education, and strengthen the future workforce. Two of our impact partners, Jacksonville Promise and Lincoln Land Community College (LLCC), are helping turn that vision into reality by making higher education more accessible for local students.
One of those students is Addy Blimling, a second-year LLCC student and Jacksonville Promise scholar from Murrayville, IL. A graduate of Jacksonville High School and former volleyball player, Addy is exploring her passion for communications through an internship with her local electric cooperative—an experience that reflects the many ways renewable energy projects like Prairie Creek contribute to opportunity and career growth within the region’s energy economy. There, she supports member services and social media efforts—including managing their TikTok page and assisting with graphic design projects. After completing her associate’s degree at Lincoln Land, she plans to transfer to a four-year college to study Marketing.
For Addy, the Jacksonville Promise scholarship has been truly transformational.
“College can be so expensive, and this scholarship lifted a huge financial burden,” she said. “It’s allowed me to focus more on my studies and my future instead of worrying about how to pay for school.”
Through the support of Jacksonville Promise and LLCC, Addy has been able to stay local, pursue her degree affordably, and explore career paths that connect her education to her work experience.
“Lincoln Land gave me the chance to explore my options and make smart financial decisions,” she shared. “After graduation, I want to stay in this area and give back to the programs that have supported me.”
By expanding access to higher education and workforce training, Jacksonville Promise and Lincoln Land Community College are helping shape the future of Jacksonville, IL. Sol Systems is proud to support their efforts to equip students with the knowledge and skills needed to build a stronger, more resilient region.
