North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 62. Public Utilities § 62-126.8. Community solar energy facilities

(a) Each offering utility shall file a plan with the Commission to offer a community solar energy facility program for participation by its retail customers. The community solar energy facility program shall be designed so that each community solar energy facility offsets the energy use of not less than five subscribers and no single subscriber has more than a forty percent (40%) interest. The offering utility shall make its community solar energy facility program available on a first-come, first-served basis until the total nameplate generating capacity of those facilities equals 20 megawatts (MW).

(b) A community solar energy facility shall have a nameplate capacity of no more than five megawatts (MW). Each subscription shall be sized to represent at least 200 watts (W) of the community solar energy facility's generating capacity and to supply no more than one hundred percent (100%) of the maximum annual peak demand of electricity of each subscriber at the subscriber's premises.

(c) A community solar energy facility must be located in the service territory of the offering utility filing the plan. Subscribers shall be located in the State of North Carolina and the same county or a county contiguous to where the facility is located. The electric public utility may file a request for Commission approval for an exemption from the location requirement of this subsection and the Commission may approve the request for a facility located up to 75 miles from the county of the subscribers, if the Commission deems the exemption to be in the public interest.

(d) The offering utility shall credit the subscribers to its community solar energy facility for all subscribed shares of energy generated by the facility at the avoided cost rate.

(e) The Commission may approve, disapprove, or modify a community solar energy facility program. The program shall meet all of the following requirements: