New England offers some of the nation’s biggest incentives for renewable energy generation, but high upfront costs and complicated financing mean many residents are still missing out on the opportunity to go solar. But one cooperative, with a series of pioneering programs, is beginning to change that.

Co-op Power, headquartered in Massachusetts, has steadily built up its credentials over the past decade. In a significant milestone, it mounted a $4.3 million community-based fundraising campaign for a biodiesel plant set to go online early next year. It has supported hundreds of rooftop solar installations, and fueled the region’s green job growth.

Leveraging its cooperative structure -- underpinned by 500-plus member-owners who help set its strategy and back projects in Massachusetts and New York -- the group plans to sharpen its focus on bringing more community solar projects to the grid, then delivering benefits more people in the communities it serves.

To date, Co-op Power has developed a series of innovative projects driving continued success in the marketplace. John Farrell, who leads ILSR’s Energy Democracy Initiative, explored the group’s past, present and future in a November 2016 conversation with Isaac Baker, a founding member of Co-op Power and its vice president of community solar.