To report an outage, call
1-800-448-2383
Community Solar Garden Progressing for Blue Ridge Members: First of its Kind in Ashe County
A community solar garden for Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation members in Ashe County is coming soon!
The solar garden will be located on the Ashe County Job Development property beside AEV and the old Sara Lee building in Jefferson.
While renewable energy currently makes up six percent of Blue Ridge Electric’s power supply and that percentage is growing, community solar gardens will empower cooperative members to directly choose to invest in receiving a greater portion of their electricity from solar resources. More details on how to participate will be announced soon as gardens are completed and members interested in participating can notify Blue Ridge by signing up at www.BlueRidgeEMC.com/solar.
Community solar gardens are an efficient way to provide greater access to renewable energy: solar arrays are sited in optimal locations of sunlight for the best energy output and consumers. Solar gardens are ideal for those concerned about the upfront costs or maintenance of installing solar panels on their home’s roof. Additionally, community solar benefits all members by helping reducing overall power demand.
The effort is part of an initiative to construct and offer participation in community solar gardens this fall across the cooperative’s service area in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe and Alleghany counties. Each will be a 100 kW (kilowatt) array consisting of more than 350 ground mounted solar panels that will cumulatively power around 50 average households. Pricing options are currently being developed for subscribing to the energy rights of one or more solar panels.
Blue Ridge Electric is committed to making its members lives better by offering innovative, powerful solutions such as community solar. The cooperative serves some 74,000 members.