As solar energy grows nationwide, local governments continue to play a significant role in its expansion. Through the adoption of local solar policies and programs, they can increase the affordability and ease for its residents and businesses to go solar.

To encourage and help more local governments become “solar-ready,” SolSmart is launching its 2019 City & County Challenge Campaign. The Challenge Campaign offers cities and counties new to the SolSmart program a chance to win special prizes and move towards Bronze, Silver, or Gold designation.

Simply by holding a one-on-one consultation call with SolSmart staff and submitting a Solar Statement (a letter of interest committing staff time to receive technical assistance in pursuit of designation), your community will be eligible to receive the following special prizes:

• Complimentary passes to: 
  • The 2019 NLC City Summit, November, 20-23 in San Antonio, Texas OR;
  • The 2019 NACo Annual Conference, July, 12-15 in Clark County, Nevada
• Complimentary accommodations and travel reimbursement for the above conferences.
• Special recognition through NLC/NACo communications channels, including a blogpost and social media.

To be eligible, your city/county must be new to the SolSmart program, and hold the consultation call and submit the signed Solar Statement by June 21. The Challenge Campaign winners (one city and one county) will be chosen randomly through a drawing – this means that all communities, regardless of their previous solar experience, will have a chance to win!

The Challenge Campaign will run from March 4, 2019, through June 21, 2019. For more information or to get started:

• Cities can contact Nick Kasza (kasza@nlc.org) from the National League of Cities, and
• Counties can contact Jack Morgan (jmorgan@naco.org) from the National Association of Counties.

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SolSmart is a national designation and technical assistance program for local governments funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office. The program promotes the use of best practices by local governments to streamline solar processes and increase affordability and accessibility for residents and businesses. All communities can access no-cost technical assistance, even outside of this Challenge. To date, SolSmart has over 230 designees who have achieved SolSmart designation for fostering the growth of local solar markets in their cities and counties.