Following the successful opening of its Germantown store in May 2024, Weavers Way Co-op, Philadelphia, Pa., is continuing to plan for the future. General Manager Jon Rosser and the co-op staff have begun plans to install solar panels on the new store. Once installed, the panels will generate approximately one-third of the store’s power needs.

The co-op had to get creative, however, to fund the project. Initial estimates showed that manufacturing the number of panels large enough to meet the store’s energy needs would cost as much as $150,000, and that didn’t even factor in the cost of installation.

Fortunately, Weavers Way was able to form a partnership with another cooperative — the Clean Energy Co-op — to significantly offset the costs. The energy co-op, founded in 2015, had recently created a new chapter in the Philadelphia area dedicated to bringing renewable energy to residents, and Weavers Way soon became its first customer.

The Clean Energy team drafted a plan for Weavers Way that could provide roughly one-third of the store’s energy needs, without the co-op having to pay for the cost of equipment. The plan entails selling shares in each project to buyers who become co-op members. The panels belong to those members, and in return, they recoup their investment by selling kilowatts to the host corporation. The plan is particularly advantageous for Weavers Way, as it gives them a fixed cost on kilowatts for the next 25 years.

Read more about the project and Weavers Way’s partnership with the Clean Energy Co-op here.