This brief, produced as a resource for the Solar Market Pathways initiative, explores three key questions for solar developers or advocates at the community level who need to work with utilities to move projects forward: the nature of utility ownership (investor-owned, public, or municipal/cooperative), whether the utility operates in a competitive retail energy market; and whether the utility itself owns generation facilities, including solar.

Solar Market Pathways supported communities participating in or seeking designation from the U.S. Department of Energy’s SolSmart program. As part of this work, RAP provided workshops and other technical assistance to participating communities and contributed to a SolSmart toolkit for local governments.