Community solar power plants or “Buergersolar” as they are known in Germany, have helped many local German communities on the way to implementing their own local carbon reduction strategies with the aim of becoming self-sufficient in renewable energy. There are numerous case studies on the net of successful German community PV projects managed by locally formed organisations.

This aim of this paper is to inform project initiators, potential investors and other interested parties about the steps generally involved in the successful implementation of a community solar project.