SolSmart Issue Brief: Solar and Resiliency, Integrative Financing Strategies for SolSmart Communities

This SolSmart issue brief was prepared by the Regulatory Assistance Project. The purpose of this brief is to provide existing and potential SolSmart communities with an approach for expanding solar and resiliency project financing options by integrating their solar energy goals with their community resiliency goals. The brief first places community energy resilience planning into the context of a stakeholder-driven identification of community goals. It next takes up the process of scoping the energy resiliency project. The third portion of the brief turns to financing the project. The rest of the brief focuses on lessons learned about financing, illustrated by three case studies that provide perspective on how financial support for community projects has been built or is still being built.

Related Criteria

• GO-8: Install solar PV plus storage on local government facilities and/or local government-controlled land.
• GO-10: Procure solar energy for municipal operations through an offsite physical PPA, virtual PPA, green tariff, or similar structure.
• CE-12: Discuss solar PV goals and/or strategies for increasing solar PV development within an appropriate committee, commission, taskforce, and/or working group. (e.g. solar is a recurring agenda item during monthly sustainability commission meetings).
• MD-8: Provide local incentives or locally-enabled finance (e.g. a revolving loan fund) for solar PV.