An update on the community solar program, and why the remaining spots won't last
If you've opened a BGE bill lately, you already know what this article is about.
Rates have gone one direction for years. BGE's electric delivery rates have risen 33 percent since 2020, according to the Maryland Office of People's Counsel. This past January brought another increase. February brought another. Supply rates rose again in March. And in July, BGE filed a request with the Maryland Public Service Commission for $156 million more — which, if approved, would add roughly $8 a month to the average customer's bill. A decision is expected in January 2027.
To put the strain in perspective: as of March, roughly 290,000 BGE customers were behind on their payments.
So when we started telling people in the community that there was a way to take 20 percent off the electric bill — at no cost, with nothing installed, and nothing changing in the house — the most common reaction was a polite, skeptical, "What's the catch?"
It's a fair question. Here's the honest answer: there isn't one.
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What has actually happened since we started
Hundreds of families in our community have now enrolled.
The first group is already seeing the credits land on their bills. And the reaction has been, frankly, better than we expected. People who signed up months ago mostly forgot about it — until the bill arrived and the number was lower. No phone calls, no paperwork, no one coming to the house. Just a smaller bill.
The second thing we keep hearing is about how little was involved. Most people were done in under two minutes. You send a photo of your BGE bill. That's genuinely the whole process on your end.
And the third thing — the one we didn't expect — is how many people have come back not to ask a question, but to pass the information to a neighbor, a brother-in-law, a chavrusa. More than half of our recent signups came that way.
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So why is this free? What is this, really?
This is the part worth understanding, because it's what makes the whole thing make sense.
Maryland has a state program that encourages clean energy by letting households subscribe to a share of a solar farm. The farm feeds power into the same grid your house already draws from. The electricity your share produces shows up on your BGE bill as a credit — and you buy those credits at a discount.
That discount is the 20 percent. That's the entire mechanism.
Think of it the way you'd think about a rebate or a government check: the money has been set aside to encourage clean energy, and it goes to whoever claims it. It costs nothing to claim. It just sits there until someone takes it. For years, most of our community didn't know it existed — so it went to other people.
There is no cost to enroll. No credit check. No equipment, no panels, nothing on your roof. BGE remains your utility. Same wires, same service, same bill arriving the same way — just a smaller number at the bottom. You can cancel whenever you want.
Nothing changes in your house. That's not marketing language — it's literally true. Nobody visits, nothing is installed, and your electricity works exactly as it does today.
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For businesses too
This isn't only for houses.
Shuls, schools, stores, offices, any commercial account with an electric bill can enroll — at 10 percent off, through the same community solar program.
Same structure, same simplicity: the credit appears on the bill you already pay. No equipment, no capital outlay, no credit check, no change to your service. If your building has a BGE bill, it qualifies.
For a shul or a school carrying a large monthly electric bill, 10 percent is real money that goes straight back into the mosad.
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Why we're writing this now
The solar farms are nearly full.
Each farm has a fixed capacity, and once the subscriptions are allocated, that's the end of it. There is no waiting list that quietly turns into a signup six months later — when it's full, it's full, and the next opportunity depends on when another farm comes online.
We've watched the available capacity shrink steadily over the last several weeks, largely because word has spread through the community faster than we anticipated.
There are a limited number of spots left, and a limited number of days to claim them.
We'd much rather those remaining spots go to families and mosdos in our own community than to someone else. That's the only reason this article exists.
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How to sign up
Send us a photo of your BGE bill. That's it — we handle everything else.
Call, text or WhatsApp: 732-314-5010 | info@lowerurbill.com | lowerurbill.com/enroll
Residential and commercial. Homeowners and renters — the bill only needs to be in your name.
If you've been meaning to get to this, now is the time. Once the farms are subscribed, the opportunity closes.
