Taylor King Boyles has been dreaming about solar electricity ever since he watched a Reading Rainbow episode about solar powered cars as a child. Mr. King Boyles, now 35, recalls making quips about solar power in his high school graduation speech.

So last year, when he and his wife, Hannah, 34, were ready to install solar panels on their rooftop in Columbus, Ohio, it was appropriate that their journey would fit in the plot of an educational television show: The couple got involved with a group of fellow Ohioans who joined forces to navigate the process and purchase equipment in bulk.

Today, newly placed panels shine atop the roofs of 15 Columbus-area residences, including the King Boyleses’s handsome cedar shingle house, Dr. Joshua da Silva and Jesse Pertuset’s stone and stucco home, and the Leber and Golomb family’s Cape Cod, all a result of a solar-buying cooperative they joined last year.

Area residents worked together to vet installers, demystify contracts and, ultimately, install panels. Some people learned about the group from their local library. Together, it’s estimated they will save more than $1.1 million in lifetime energy costs.

The King Boyles family switched on their panels at the end of last year. They took a video, though there wasn’t much to observe. Some tiny blinking lights changed from red to green. Did anything else happen? “No. You just get really happy,” Ms. King Boyles recalled.

The couple wrote up a fact sheet detailing the price they paid, the installer they used, the tax break they anticipated and the electricity output of their system. In an echo of the Reading Rainbow episodes that end with kids reciting book reports, they emailed it to the neighborhood Listserv.

LeVar Burton would be pleased.

For many solar-curious homeowners, getting started can be daunting. A rooftop panel system is expensive: It can cost $20,000 to $30,000 or more. There are horror stories of aggressive salespeople and less-than-scrupulous installation companies. People worry about damaging their roofs, getting stuck with a system that doesn’t pass inspection or making decisions they’ll come to regret.

50 States, 50 Fixes is a series about local solutions to environmental problems. More to come this year.

Joining a buying group can alleviate some of those concerns. The cooperative Mr. and Ms. King Boyles worked with was organized by Solar United Neighbors, a nonprofit group that facilitates solar purchasing programs all over the country. People can join local groups for free and attend information sessions, ask questions and get cost estimates from area installers.

Here’s how it works: Co-ops run for four to eight months and generally include 30 to 100 members. Around the third month, Solar United Neighbors solicits proposals from local installers, who compete for the business of the whole group. After the nonprofit does an initial round of due diligence on the bids, each cooperative appoints its own selection committee, which combs through the fine print and selects the best fit.

After an installer is chosen, each household decides whether to move forward and sign an individual contract. Last year, 94 people signed up for the Columbus co-op, resulting in 15 installations.

Andy Leber is a psychology and neuroscience professor at Ohio State University who participated in last year’s Columbus cooperative. “People want stuff like this,” he said. “And they feel like there’s just roadblocks right and left, so when you have an organization come along to remove some of those barriers, people really appreciate it.”

The idea is that installers will save some time and money by purchasing equipment in bulk and negotiating with a group of buyers rather than one household at a time. They can then offer lower rates. Winning installers pay a per-house referral fee to Solar United Neighbors, and there is no penalty for co-op members who choose not to move forward or who work with a different company.

The King Boyleses, who solicited bids on their own before working with the co-op, estimated the group had saved them $750, or 4 percent of their total costs.

Once switched on, the rooftop panels start to put a dent in household electricity costs. For Dr. Joshua da Silva, an emergency medicine specialist and 2024 co-op participant, his monthly electricity bill savings come close to covering the cost of the loan he took out to finance his system. Sometimes, he generates more electricity than he uses and earns credits that will apply to future bills.

The math will get more difficult in a few short months. On a hot July morning, workers from Appalachian Renewable Power were installing panels on the roof of Karen and Michael Thomson, a pair of homeowners whose project was accelerated after Republicans in Congress passed a domestic policy bill to phase out the solar power tax credits that will offset almost a third of their costs. Those credit are set to vanish at the end of this year.

As she watched the vote on television, the Solar United Neighbors program director for Ohio, Mryia Williams, sketched a cartoon of a solar panel riding in a car on a twisty track. “Hang on — it’s a solar coaster!” it read. She printed out stickers.

Ms. Williams didn’t sugarcoat the potential effects of the rollbacks. “It’s going to be a whole show, we’re just waiting to see what type,” she said, adding that the nonprofit group planned to keep moving forward with business as usual.

Without tax credits, it’ll be even more important for homeowners to save as much as possible on equipment and installation, and the organization’s role in protecting consumers will remain important regardless of which party is in power, she said.

There are some signs the group-buying model could take on a life of its own beyond rooftop solar. Dr. Leber, the Ohio State professor who participated in last year’s cooperative, has grown frustrated with local plumbers’ reluctance to install a water heater powered by an electric heat pump in his home.

He’s dreaming about starting a purchasing cooperative for heat pump water heaters with Electrify Central Ohio, another local environmental group he volunteers with.

“If we have like 20 or 30 people who want to buy one, maybe a plumbing company will wake up,” he said.