Golden Valley Electric has rules for community solar and no community solar

Golden Valley Electric Association now has state-approved rules for community solar. It has no community solar.

Regulators approved the Interior cooperative's terms and fees Aug. 14. What they govern is how someone else's project would connect. Under the 2024 SAVE Act, a utility must offer a community energy program once a subscriber organization — the entity that owns the facility — asks to connect one. That request has to come from outside the utility, and GVEA's website lists no such program.

The approved terms require a subscriber organization to contract at least 85 percent of a facility's nameplate capacity, its maximum rated output, and set a $65 application fee.

The law lets Alaskans buy into renewable projects without installing equipment at home. Chugach Electric opened the state's first community solar array, 500 kilowatts, in 2025. It is fully subscribed, with a waitlist.

GVEA was one of four cooperatives to file nearly identical tariffs within days of each other in June, alongside Chugach, Matanuska Electric and Homer Electric.