What is Solarize the Kenai?

Solarize the Kenai is a volunteer led campaign, supported by Cook Inletkeeper, Sustainable Seward and Kenai Change, working to make buying solar more assecessible on the Kenai Peninsula. Solarize the Kenai uses a cooperative buying model to make purchasing solar power cheaper and more convenient for home-owners, businesses, community centers, churches, and other building owners on the Kenai Peninsula. Community groups in the Lower 48 have successfully used the Solarize model since 2009. In Alaska, Solarize Anchorage is in its fourth year and Solarize Fairbanks in its second. These Solarize programs help to diversify Alaska's energy profile and empower property owners to play a role in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.

Solarize the Kenai pools the buying power of peninsula communities by gathering as many people with an interest in home or small business solar as we can, then inviting local solar installers to bid for the job of serving them all in the coming season. For the installer, filling out their schedule with a known group of customers lowers their logistics and marketing costs, letting them offer services for less. And because the installers are competing against one another for the pool of customers, they’re incentivized to offer even more of a discount.

In summer 2021, Solarize the Kenai will be carrying out three campaigns using this model: one in the central peninsula, covering home and business owners in the Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, Sterling, Kasilof, and Clam Gulch zipcodes, another in the Homer area, and for the first time, one in Seward.

Find out how you can join the Solarize campaign and benefit from group discounts in solarizing this year, click the link below.