Resource Library

Formerly contaminated lands can serve as potential sites for community-scale solar projects, but may include additional challenges not typical of other solar developments. This webinar discusses the advantages, disadvantages, and considerations associated with these solar photovoltaic developments, as well as showcasing projects and initiatives focused on deploying solar on formerly contaminated lands.

Following up on a successful webinar on local government opportunities to integrate solar photovoltaic (PV) generation and electric vehicles (EV), SolSmart presented a deeper dive conversation focused on emerging best practices for PV and electric bus charging integration at transit agencies.

In this webinar, we addressed best practices for planning and zoning for large-scale solar in your community. The webinar covers ways to provide maximum siting options for ground mount solar projects while preserving your community’s character and historic resources.

This guide explains how communities can collaborate with their utilities on programs that produce complementary benefits for solar and electrification policies.

In this webinar, we learn the basics of a successful Solarize campaign. Experts from Solar United Neighbors and the Philadelphia Energy Authority share how a Solarize campaign can keep more economic value in the community and be modified to enable participation by low-to-moderate income customers. The webinar also features two cases studies from Alaska and Indiana.

This webinar addresses opportunities for local governments to promote the co-development and integration of solar PV generation and electric vehicles (EVs). Simultaneous adoption of PV and EVs in a community can present substantial benefits, particularly when policies and initiatives for PV and EVs are thoughtfully aligned.

This SolSmart Issue Brief describes the community solar model and highlights approaches for developing new projects. It discusses why community solar can be beneficial, the ingredients of successful programs, and case studies of successful community solar programs across the country.

These tools, largely developed by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), allow local government staff to 1) better understand their community’s solar resource potential; 2) explore the economics of developing solar and storage projects within their communities; and 3) plan and develop policy to incentivize solar.

This SolSmart Issue Brief helps local governments understand and benefit from energy storage technologies.

This is the second part of the SolSmart webinar series on solar and energy efficiency in low-to-moderate income (LMI) communities. This webinar provides examples of projects and programs already demonstrating significant advancement of solar and energy efficiency in LMI communities.