Solar Energy Systems For Local Governments

As demand for energy increases, many communities are seeking ways to meet this demand with clean, safe, reliable energy from renewable sources such as sun and wind. Fortunately, many of the key technologies that can unlock the power of these renewable resources are available on the market today. While the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) continues to fund research and development (R&D) to improve solar technologies, DOE is also focusing on accelerating a robust nationwide market for the currently available technologies. Development of a nationwide market requires overcoming barriers to widespread adoption of solar energy technologies. These barriers include complicated procedures for permitting and connecting systems to the grid, financing challenges, a lac of awareness of solar energy solutions among key decision makers, and a lack of trained installation contractors. Local governments are uniquely positioned to remove many of these barriers, clearing the way for solar markets to thrive in their locales. Representatives of local governments who understand and prepare for policy and market changes can optimally position their communities in the emerging renewable energy economy. To accelerate the nationwide adoption of solar energy, DOE established partnerships with 25 "Solar America Cities" around the United States. Local organizations and policy makers in each Solar America City are taking a comprehensive approach to bringing solar to their cities. Their work lays the foundation for a viable solar market and offers a model for other communities to follow. As a result of the progress made in the 25 Solar America Cities, in 2010 DOE announced a new effort to share the best practices developed with thousands of local governments across the nation. As part of this evolution, DOE created a broader program called Solar America Communities to reflect the intention to promote solar market development within cities, counties, and all other local jurisdictions. This is a comprehensive resource DOE created to assist local governments and stakeholders in designing and implementing a strategic local solar plan. This guide includes examples and models that have been field tseted in cities and counties around the country. Many of the examples are the direct result of DOE's Solar America Communities program.

Solar energy development is an increasingly cost-effective way for communities to diversify their energy portfolios, promote local economic growth, and help to protect the nation's natural resources. Recognizing the potential benefits of solar power, state and local governments across the United States have introduced tax credits, subsidies, rebates, and other policies in recent years to promote solar energy within their boundaries. Most of these policies seek to encourage solar energy development by offsetting the real cost to landowners of installing solar energy systems on their properties. Although these valuable programs clearly increase voluntarily solar energy installations within a jurisdiction, many of them can also require substantial government funding. Because of widespread state and municipal budget pressures, such policies are increasingly difficult to enact and maintain at the local level. Fortunately, there exists a way for local governments to significantly increase solar energy installations within their boundaries without bearing the cost: through policies that require citizens to install onsite solar energy systems or contribute funds toward offsite solar energy facilities as a condition to receiving building or subdivision approvals. Because developers and the purchasers of homes or spaces within their new projects bear most of the costs under these “solar mandate” policies, such policies can significantly increase local solar energy development activity with minimal government funding. This Guide describes how local governments can use solar mandates to increase solar energy development and seeks to assist local government officials in adopting such policies in their respective jurisdictions. Built upon the inventive policy efforts of a small handful of cities and counties throughout the country, and consistent with a scope of local building regulation that has existed for decades, the model code provisions accompanying this Guide can be a low-cost and politically feasible way for local governments to accelerate the growth of solar energy development within their communities.

This fact sheet outlines the content of the second edition of the DOE publication Solar Powering Your Local Community: A Guide for Local Governments.

DOE/EERE Solar America Cities Fact Sheet - Solar Powering Your Community: A Guide for Local Governments, July 2009.

State and local governments have grown increasingly aware of the economic, environmental, and societal benefits of taking a lead role in U.S. implementation of renewable energy, particularly distributed photovoltaic (PV) installations. Recently, solar energy's cost premium has declined as a result of technology improvements and an increase in the cost of traditional energy generation. At the same time, a nationwide public policy focus on carbon-free, renewable energy has created a wide range of financial incentives to lower the costs of deploying PV even further. These changes have led to exponential increases in the availability of capital for solar projects, and tremendous creativity in the development of third-party ownership structures. As significant users of electricity, state and local governments can be an excellent example for solar PV system deployment on a national scale. Many public entities are not only considering deployment on public building rooftops, but also large-scale applications on available public lands. The changing marketplace requires that state and local governments be financially sophisticated to capture as much of the economic potential of a PV system as possible. This report examines ways that state and local governments can optimize the financial structure of deploying solar PV for public uses.