Community Renewable Energy

OUR MISSION

We provide environmental stewardship by sustainably fueling communities.

EMPOWERED NON-PROFITS

What We Offer

To help nonprofits reach their economic and ecological goals, Community Renewable Energy crafts clean energy solutions tailored to each partner’s specific needs, challenges and opportunities. Given our decades of experience supporting non-profits, we understand both the opportunity renewable energy presents to non-profits and the challenges of accessing it. We use new technologies to solve traditional pain points for our non-profit partners. CRE builds solar that meets or beats your fossil fuel-based energy costs and structure our projects to reduce risk and burden for you. Our solar projects strive to reduce operational costs allowing our partners to focus more of their dollars on their important missions while reducing their environmental impact at the same time. By driving project costs to zero, your nonprofit can refocus operating expenses towards your mission while simultaneously garnering public and funder goodwill.

OUR PROCESS

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Economic

Harnessing renewable energy technology to reduce nonprofits operational costs, to spark community development and provide a return on investment with environmental impact.

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Equitable

Expanding access to renewable energy, and maximizing the economic and environmental impact of clean energy

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Sustaining

Creating a virtuous cycle by harnessing clean energy generated funds to catalyze more community investment and clean energy access.

NEIGHBORHOOD SOLAR EQUITY INITIATIVE

The Neighborhood Solar Equity (NSE) initiative is a collaboration between Community Renewable Energy and a mission-aligned Benefit Corporation, Root + Branch. We launched the NSE initiative to further our community-based mission in the District of Columbia and to harness solar power for community-wide impact. To reduce the financial burden to nonprofit partners in D.C, we develop, finance, own, and maintain the solar photovoltaic system for our nonprofit host for twenty years. NSE projects provide clean energy to the nonprofit host at a below-market price, often even for free.

To further expand the impact of clean energy, our NSE projects reinvest proceeds of these systems back into our surrounding neighborhoods through community development efforts. We engage stakeholders and the community to encourage growth in solidarity, responsibility, and compassionate care for the environment. This integrated model of solar maximizes the impact of clean energy while sharing the benefits of clean energy with our community. Every Neighborhood Solar Equity project strives to make more winners with solar.

IMPACT SOLAR INITIATIVE

The Impact Solar Initiative harnesses new innovative financial models to generate low-cost on-site renewable energy for the organizations serving our communities the most. It is focused on the equitable deployment of solar to increase green energy jobs, catalyze economic development, and offset the carbon footprint of our region, all while generating operational savings for nonprofit organizations.

The Impact Solar Initiative was created by The Columbus Partnership and Community Renewable Energy to Propel Columbus toward its sustainability goals and demonstrate the meaningful effect of impact investing and community-serving development models in Ohio.

Learn more about the initiative at impactsolar.org.

Contact Community Renewable Energy today to find your solar power solution.

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OUR RECENT NEWS

In the News: Affordable Housing Grant Could Bring Construction to Oberlin

by Julia Schaefer | Mar 9, 2026 | Blog

"The Lorain County Land Bank applied Jan. 12 for the Welcome Home Ohio grant, a state-funded program that awards counties and municipalities grants to increase access to affordable housing. The land bank applied for 65 lots owned by the Cities of Oberlin, Elyria, and...