Salal Community Solar
Hamilton, WA · Puget Sound Energy · Operational Q2 2026
670 kW DC / 480 kW AC · 1,156 Heliene 580 W modules · five SolarEdge SE120KUS inverters
Purpose
PSE's Community Solar program lets its electric customers buy into local solar without putting panels on their own property. PSE builds the arrays, divides them into shares, and credits subscribers on their bill for what their share actually produces. Renters, homeowners, and businesses can all take part, and PSE reserves a portion of every project at no cost for income-eligible customers, who are least likely to have a roof of their own to use.
The arrays sit on host properties across PSE's service area. Here, that is leased industrial roof space: the owner is paid to use the roof, and PSE funds, owns, and maintains the system. The connection is made on PSE's side of the meter, so the output goes to the grid and to subscribers rather than to the building underneath it.
Technical Details
As a front-of-the-meter utility-owned system, this community solar project exports only. Interconnection was made as a supply-side tap at a new PSE pad-mounted transformer stepping 480Y/277 V up to 12.47 kV onto a substation circuit, requiring a trenched AC run of roughly 216 feet from the building to the transformer vault, with guard posts where the equipment sits close to site traffic.
On the roof, eleven arrays were laid out around existing obstructions, a roof access hatch, and six-foot perimeter and eight-foot interior fire pathways, all on ballasted racking so nothing penetrates the membrane. The ground-level equipment run is PSE's: meter, CT cabinet, an 800 A utility disconnect, and a communications enclosure with PSE's own router.
