Dive Brief:

• A three-story Seattle apartment building may be the first affordable housing complex with a solar farm on its roof, according to news and commentary website Grist.org.

• The 35-kilowatt array atop the 30-unit Holiday Apartments building in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood is a joint effort of Seattle City Light and community group Capitol Hill Housing. But the photovoltaic panels do not power the building. Instead, any Seattle City Light customer may buy a 28-watt share of the “community solar program” for $150. In return, the buyers get credits on their electric bills based on the profit the program earns by selling the electricity the panels generate back to the electric company.

• Since the program began in October, utility customers have bought 85% of the 925 solar units available. However, none of the shares has been purchased by Holiday Apartments tenants, who are mostly low-income.

Dive Insight:

Community solar projects are growing in popularity in eco-friendly Washington state—even though Seattle and other cities there are not especially sunny. The typical price of a community solar project share, $500 to $1,400, is higher than what Holiday Apartments program charges, at $150 per share, according to Grist.

The utility has said its decision to locate the solar panels in a low-rent neighborhood might spark interest in clean energy among low-income tenants.