The SunShot Solar Outreach Partnership presented workshops, webinars, publications, and other resources for local governments seeking to make solar a mainstream energy source. Here is a selection of webinar offerings.

Installing Solar on Municipal Facilities 2 (August 28, 2012)

Considering installing solar on a municipal facility? During this FREE hour-long webinar, you will hear from solar industry experts about the benefits of going solar, solar technologies and their applications, and tools for financing solar projects. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Small Communities and Solar (June 19, 2012)

Small communities looking to go solar may face challenges, especially when looking to achieve the economies of scale that make solar projects cost effective or attractive to developers. On this webinar, learn about some of the considerations for small communities looking to go solar and then hear directly from local governments that have installed solar on their facilities or partnered with solar installers to undertake installations in their communities. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Economic (Re)Development and Solar (April 24, 2012)

Looking for something to do with that former landfill? Interested in renewable energy? Communities across the country have brownfields, capped landfills, and other pieces of vacant and underutilized land, which have the potential to be successfully redeveloped with solar. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Installing Solar on Municipal Facilities  (January 24, 2012)

Considering installing solar on a municipal facility? During this FREE hour-long webinar, you will learn from the experiences of San Jose, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Tucson, Arizona. These three cities – all Solar America Cities – have city-run solar programs and have successfully installed solar on city-owned facilities. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Proven Strategies to Successfully Implement a Solar Energy Program that Benefits Your Community (June 30, 2011)

Discover how San Jose, California, obtained a power purchase agreement to have a 1.3 megawatt solar energy system installed on a municipal facility, with an estimated savings of more than a half million dollars over the next 20 years.  Get lessons learned from Gainesville, Florida, which implemented the first European-style Solar Feed-In Tariff in the United States, which has increased the amount of solar energy produced from 328 kilowatts (in 2009) to almost 7 megawatts today. And finally, get practical strategies from Pendleton, Oregon, for using tax credits to make solar installation affordable for businesses and homeowners, and find out how the city got two solar energy systems installed that were paid for by a third party. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Solar Roadmap: Your Path to Regional Prosperity (June 2013)

Navigating the rapidly evolving solar energy market can be a challege and charting the right course for a community reguies both local and national knowledge.  The Solar Roadmap platform, and its free resources, organize global best practices and make them easily accessible locally for government agencies, regional organizations, businesses and electric utilities. Learn how the Solar roadmap can help your region determine realistic solar opportunities and best practices to transform your economy through solar development. Link: Webinar materials and recording 

Untangling PV Systems and Property Taxes (June 5, 2013)

In this webinar, the leading authors of a working report on the assessment and taxation of PV equipment discussed their key findings, including how different states classify, assess and tax PV property; the relative burden of property taxes in different jurisdictions; issues that complicate the assessment and taxation processes, and strategies for resolving these issues. These speakers include Casey Johnston of ICLEI-USA, Justin Barnes of North Carolina Solar Center and Chad Laurent of Meister Consultants Group. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Supporting Demand for Solar through Feed-In Tariff Programs (April 10, 2013)

Over the last twelve months, several municipal utilities have adopted new, and at times innovative, Feed-in Tariff (FiT) programs. Through these initiatives, utilities offer to purchase all the electricity produced by eligible solar energy systems at attractive prices and under long-term contracts. When properly designed, these incentive programs can be highly effective at stimulating local demand for solar energy.  In an effort to update local government stakeholders on the latest FiT initiatives and innovative program designs, the U.S. Department of Energy Soalr Outreach Partnership hosted a webinar on April 10th, 2013. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Financing Solar in a Fiscally Constrained Time (October 2012)

This webinar focuses on how local and regional municipalities can use power purchase agreements (PPAs) to reduce upfront costs to installing solar, while providing additional revenue streams. Learn from national and local solar industry experts on how using PPAs can make solar affordable in your region. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Balancing Solar and Other Competing Interests (September 2012)

Communities have a range of goals and priorities. Sometimes, these goals can be in conflict with one another. Decisions in support of one goal may be to the detriment of another goal. Planners can help communities balance these competing interests and understand any tradeoffs. This webinar will present the potential competing interests between solar and historic resources as well as solar and tree preservation. Presenters will highlight relevant legislation, case law, and local development regulations as well as provide steps communities can take to help ensure these resources can co-exist in the future. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Solar Powering Your Community: The Local Government Role in Increasing Solar Adoption (September 2011)

The Department of Energy's Solar America Communities Outreach Partnership is focused on reducing barriers to solar adoption and increasing installed capacity by decreasing project execution time, revising zoning and building codes to allow for solar installations, and increasing access to financing options. This session examines the role that local governments can play in addressing challenges and obstacles related to solar, drawing on Milwaukee’s experience as a Solar America City. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Getting to a Win-Win: Distributed Solar and Utility Cost Recovery (November 2014)

In this webinar, we will feature Solar Outreach Partnership’s recent publication entitled Rethinking Standby and Fixed Cost Charges: Regulatory and Rate Design Pathways to Deeper Solar Cost Reductions. Lead authors Jim Kennerly, senior policy analyst at the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center, and Kathryn Wright, Consultant at Meister Consultants Group, will discuss the key findings of their report, including a three-part approach that includes revenue decoupling (allowing utilities to ensure recovery of their costs, meet investors’ expectations, and encourage customers to save energy), a minimum monthly contribution (allowing utilities to recover some revenue from customers who are zero net energy users), and time-of-use pricing (providing both solar and non-solar customers with transparent utility cost information), and other approaches that serve the interests of both solar PV technology and utilities. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Solar for All: Minimum Costs to Local Governments and Maximum Solar for their Communities (September 2014)

ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability U.S.A. presents a free webinar featuring the city of Beaverton, Oregon’s Solar on Reservoirs project, and Tompkins County, NY’s solarize program. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Solar Permitting & Inspection Webinar Series (May 2014)

ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability U.S.A. and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Inc. (IREC) present a series of three webinars on Solar Permitting & Inspection. The first webinar of the series will focus on pre-application materials, such as an application checklist and an effective web presence, as well as the permit application submittal and review process. The second webinar of the series will address the inspection component of the process, including inspection scheduling and timing, inspection checklists and inspector training. The final webinar of the series will take a step back and examine how communities can change their permitting processes, with a particular focus on voluntary regional and statewide collaborations. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Utility Community Solar: Program Development and Implementation (March 2014)

ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA, in collaboration with the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA), presented a free webinar on Community Solar Program Development and Implementation on Mar. 12 at 3:00pm – 4:00pm. In this webinar, we featured a recent publication of the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Solar Outreach Partnership: The Utility Community Solar Handbook. Becky Campbell, Senior Research Manager of SEPA and one of the lead authors of the handbook was joined by a utility community solar program representative from the Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation to discuss community solar program development and implementation from the utility’s perspective. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Solar Asheville (November 2013)

This webinar presents a case study on how Asheville is currently creating its own Solarize program and provides an open dialogue discussing how other cities can implement their own Solarize campaigns. Those involved in the implementation of the Asheville Solarize program will be available for questions and answers. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Promoting Solar Energy Use Through Local Plans (September 2013)

This webinar takes a closer look at how communities can incorporate references to solar energy use as well as specific solar-related goals, policies, and actions into local plan documents.  Erin Musiol, AICP, Senior Research Associate with the American Planning Association, will focus on the relationships among different types of plans, the reasons for including information about solar energy in different plans and plan sections, and the types of information to consider including in these plans. Musiol will be joined by Steve Abraham, AICP, Planning Manager for the Pinal County, Arizona, and Nathan Geisler, Energy Programs Associate with the City of Ann Arbor, Michigan, who will personalize the conversation by describing their communities’ respective experiences integrating solar into a comprehensive plan and a functional plan. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Putting Solar Energy Use on the Local Policy Agenda (August 2013)

This webinar will explain why communities should be planning for solar energy use and offer some guidance to planners, public officials, and engaged citizens to help them initiate and facilitate conversations about solar in their communities. In this webinar, David Morley, AICP, Senior Research Associate with the American Planning Association and Brian Ross, Principal with CR Planning, will explain why communities should consider solar energy use from a planning perspective. They will discuss opportunities that planners, public officials, and engaged citizens have for initiating community conversations about solar energy as a local resource. Finally, they will share some specific tools communities can use to build awareness about solar development opportunities. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Commercial PACE Program Development and Implementation (August 2013)

ICLEI- Local Governments for Sustainability, in collaboration with The Solar Foundation, presents a free webinar on “Commercial PACE: Program development and implementation” as part of the U.S Department of Energy SunShot Solar Outreach Partnership. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Solar Powering Your Community Associations (July 2013)

As the cost of residential solar energy continues its steady decline, more homeowners across the nation are becoming interested in unlocking the environmental and financial benefits solar can offer. While the desire to go solar has grown over time, so too has the number of communities governed by homeowners associations (HOAs). The solar development potential of these communities is immense. Installing solar on only 5% of all U.S. homes governed by HOAs would create as much new solar capacity as was added in the entire country in 2012. In fulfilling their mission to protect community aesthetics and to balance new development with other competing interests, HOAs have often established design guidelines for solar energy that can jeopardize a homeowner’s return on investment in solar, make the approval process for solar installations unnecessarily confusing or complex, or overlook solar energy altogether. Fortunately, there are ways in which these barriers can be addressed while respecting HOA authority to protect other community interests. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Smart Off-Grid Lighting & Security (July 2013)

Over the past decade there have been significant advancements in off-grid lighting and security in terms of reliability and cost reduction. Now we are entering the age of “Smart Off-Grid”, combining green energy with advanced cloud-based software that enables the remote monitoring, management and control of off-grid lighting. This brings off-grid lighting and security to an unprecedented level of reliability and manageability. Clear Blue Technologies joins the National Association of Regional Councils (NARC) to explain and demonstrate how this technology works and the value it brings, using real case studies and examples. Learn why regions and local governments are installing Off-Grid solar systems in their communities. Link: Webinar materials and recording

Saving with Solar: Understanding Retail Solar Power Purchase Agreements (March 2012)

In 2010, PPAs and leases made up around 43% of all PV installations (by capacity) in the non-residential sector and approximately 17% of capacity additions in the residential sector. In this webinar, we examined the emergence of PPAs and discussed the future of PPAs and other similar ownership structures. PPA experts discussed how retail PPAs work, how municipalities have taken advantage of the PPA model to lock-in their energy costs, and discussed innovative PPA ownership models. Speakers drew upon their experience in implementing solar PPAs to provide an understanding of the advantages and limitations of PPAs. The webinar began with a summary of where, and under what conditions, retail PPAs work in the U.S. This discussion briefly mentioned the intricacies that affect the legality of retail PPAs. Financing issues were highlighted, and speakers covered how local governments can finance PPAs. Link: Webinar materials and recording