Iowa City Press Release
Iowa City designated “SolSmart Gold” for Solar Energy Leadership
11/22/2023
SolSmart Designees
Iowa City
Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa enacted a number of impactful measures to support solar within the community. That included supporting a community-wide group purchase program, supporting solar energy on affordable housing, and updating zoning, permitting, and inspection practices, among others.
- Developed a solar PV assessment that identifies community-wide feasibility for solar PV development within a jurisdiction (differentiate between large-scale, municipal, etc.).
- Provided clear guidance for the installation of solar PV in areas such as historic properties, flood zones or special overlay district.
- Codified in the zoning ordinance that accessory use rooftop solar PV is explicitly allowed by-right in all major zones.
- Installed solar PV on local government facilities and/or local government-controlled land.
- Directly install or provide technical or financial support for the installation of solar PV on affordable housing, multifamily housing, community-based organizations, and/or resilience hubs.
- Created a solar landing page on the city’s website.
- Demonstrated activity in state regulatory and/or legislative proceedings regarding solar PV.
- Provided local incentives or locally-enabled finance (e.g. a revolving loan fund) for solar PV and/or solar PV + technologies (e.g., battery storage and/or electric vehicle charging),
- Supported a community-wide group purchase program (e.g., Solarize).
This designation is a testament to years of ongoing work that has been done in multiple Iowa City departments to support local residents, business, and organizations that want to pursue solar arrays for their facilities. It makes me proud to see this work recognized on a national platform, and we really valued the opportunity to learn more through this program about practices in other cities we could add to our own efforts in the future.
- Sarah Gardner, Iowa City Climate Action Coordinator
