The Cedar Rapids Community Solar garden at Deer Run, part of Alliant Energy's Community Solar portfolio, features a 4.5 MW active tracking array divided into 18,000 ‘solar blocks’ available for purchase by Alliant Energy customers to offset their utility bills.

Blocks were initially priced at $395, with pricing based on actual project costs including land, installation, and operations. After incorporating additional Inflation Reduction Act incentives, the final block price dropped to $291.

Each 250-watt block generates an estimated 541 kilowatt-hours annually, with owners receiving monthly energy credits of 5.59 cents per kilowatt-hour. This yields approximately $30 in annual returns per block over the project's 20-year lifespan.

Alliant reserved 25% of the blocks for residential customers and 6% for Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity, with the remainder open to area customers. Major participants included Transamerica and Aegon Asset Management (60% of blocks), First Interstate Bank (15%), and the City of Cedar Rapids (5%). The program attracted over 300 subscribers total. While all blocks have been sold, Alliant Energy maintains a waitlist for interested customers should existing blocks become available or new community solar projects launch.

Waldinger Corporation led the project as prime contractor, with Ideal Energy designing the solar array in close collaboration with Shive-Hattery's civil and electrical engineers, who provided PE-stamped design sets.

Ideal Energy handled procurement of major components (inverters, racking, and SCADA systems) and commissioned the tracker and communications equipment, while Waldinger managed site installation and minor component procurement.

 Specifications

Solar Energy: 4.5 MW (AC) / 5.6 MW (DC)

Modules: (10,368) Trinasolar Vertex 540 Watt Bifacial TSM-DEG19C.20

Inverters: (12) Yaskawa Solectria XGI 1500 200kW & (12) Yaskawa Solectria XGI 1500 175kW

Racking & Mounting: (108) Active trackers, horizontal N-S axis tracking plane, axis azimuth 0°