Understanding savings and billing with Nexamp

Community solar offers an easy way to lower your electricity costs while supporting clean energy in your community. To help you make the most of your subscription, here’s a breakdown of how savings and billing work, along with what to expect throughout the year.

Your share of a solar farm, also known as your subscription or your solar share, generates energy from the sun. This energy then turns into credits on your utility bill, which lowers what you owe to your utility provider.

How billing works

Credits lower your utility bill

Your subscription generates energy, which turns into credits on your utility bill and lowers what you owe.

You’ll receive a Nexamp bill

You pay Nexamp for those credits, but at a lower cost than what you would have paid your utility.

Your savings add up

Over the course of a year, you save 10-15% on your electricity costs.

Billing in arrears

It’s important to note that your Nexamp bill will typically arrive after your credits have been applied. For example, a Nexamp bill issued in February will reflect credits that were applied to your January utility bill. This timing helps us ensure that your utility applied your credits accurately, and that we’re charging you the correct amount.

Savings are not the same each month

Solar energy production naturally fluctuates throughout the year, which means the credits your solar share generates will vary with the seasons. This seasonality affects how much you save from month to month, but don't worry—this evens out over the course of the year and you'll still end up saving 10-15% on your annual electricity costs.

When do savings start?

Your savings don’t begin immediately after signing up. Due to the high demand for community solar, it can often take 3-6 months to be assigned to a live solar farm and begin generating credits. It then takes about two to three billing cycles for the credits to start appearing on your utility bill. About one month after you begin seeing solar credits on your utility bill, you will receive your first Nexamp bill for those credits

Key takeaways

  • This is not an across-the-board discount on your utility bill
    The credits generated from your solar share are not free, but you get them for 10-15% less than they are worth. It's like buying discounted gift cards for your electric provider.
  • You will not be charged the same each month
    Billing varies depending on the amount of credits you use and the timing of their application to your utility bill.
  • Nexamp bills for credits after they are applied
    There is a delay between when credits appear on your utility account and when you’re invoiced by Nexamp. This allows Nexamp to confirm that your credits have been correctly applied to your utility bill.
  • Savings begin after you are placed on a farm
    It may take two to three billing cycles after your subscription goes live for credits to appear on your utility bill.