National Community Solar Partnership’s Annual Summit |
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As part of the Department of Energy's efforts to ensure that local governments know about DOE resources, Secretary Granholm will keynote the Annual Summit of the National Community Solar Partnership on January 25 at 10 a.m. Central Time. The Secretary will discuss community solar deployment with Governor Jay Inslee of Washington and Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois. Register to join the Partnership. Membership is free and open to any community solar stakeholder in the U.S.
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Solar Power In Your Community Guidebook |
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The U.S. Department of Energy has released the third edition of Solar Power in Your Community, DOE’s guidebook to help local governments unlock environmental and economic benefits of increased solar deployment in their communities. This latest edition contains nearly 40 case studies from around the country that show field-tested approaches to reduce solar market barriers, highlights new technologies and strategies to maximize the benefits of solar, such as combining solar with energy storage to improve resilience, and emphasizes strategies for improving the equity of solar deployment at the local level.
Join the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) for an informational webinar introducing the Solar Power in Your Community guidebook.
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Permitting Tool For Solar Developers
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SolarAPP+ is a tool that rapidly approves residential solar installation permits. DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory recently released results from its SolarAPP+ (Solar Automated Permit Processing) tool pilot in five communities in California and Arizona. The results show that SolarAPP+ reduced the average permit review time to less than one day, enabled projects to be installed and inspected 12 days faster, and saved the pilot communities over 2,000 hours of staff time. Learn more about the results and sign up to use the tool.
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Help Your Community Become A SolSmart Designee! |
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Lincoln, Nebraska
Join the SolSmart 60 campaign to expand solar deployment: The SolSmart 60 Campaign aims to get 60 new communities designated as SolSmart Gold, Silver, or Bronze for making it faster, easier, and more affordable to go solar. The program offers free technical assistance to help any municipality, county, or regional organization remove obstacles to going solar and reduce the soft costs that can hold back growth. SolSmart’s team of national experts in solar energy and local government have helped these jurisdictions implement best practices and take decisive action to encourage the expansion of solar energy.
Related Reading & Resources
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USDA Rural Energy Pilot Program |
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The USDA will make up to $10 million in grants available to particularly underserved rural communities. The funds can be used to deploy community-scale renewable energy technologies and innovations to reduce climate pollution and increase resilience to the impacts of climate change. These technologies include solar, wind, geothermal, micro-hydroelectric and biomass/bioenergy. Up to 20% of awarded funds may also be used for community energy planning, capacity building, technical assistance, energy efficiency and weatherization. Read more here: USDA Launches Pilot Program to Deploy Renewable Energy Infrastructure to People in Rural Towns
More USDA Opportunities & Resources
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Legislative Update: Environmental Issues in the
2022 Unicameral with Sierra Club
January 27 at 7 pm
Join the Sierra Club’s Legislative Lobbyist Al Davis to get a preview of the environmental bills that have been introduced in the Unicameral this year. Al will give an overview of the best and worst of the legislation that our state senators will be voting on, and Al will let you know how you can have an impact in shaping legislation in Nebraska.
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DOE Better Buildings Webinar
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PV Valuation: How Solar PV Adds Value to Your Assets
February 1 at 10 am
Rooftop solar is a common renewable energy strategy, and owners and operators are now exploring potential financial benefits to the value of commercial and industrial properties. Learn from several building owners and managers on how they made the business case for solar PV and found increased asset value during appraisal or at the time of sale. This webinar will highlight multiple building types and financial models for solar PV.
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DOE Hiring 1,000 for New Clean Energy Corps |
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The Department of Energy is now collecting resumes for the Clean Energy Corps through the newly launched DOE Applicant Portal, part of a streamlined application process that will allow applicants to align their talents with their passions by indicating specific areas of interest and allowing hiring managers to review candidate profiles simultaneously.
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Watch Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s message for Clean Energy Corps applicants HERE.
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Anyone interested in joining the Department of Energy’s Clean Energy Corps can submit their resume here: energy.gov/cleanenergycorps
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Conservation Nebraska Hiring |
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Google Search
An additional search strategy is to check for jobs listings on the websites of solar and wind energy companies that have installed renewable energy projects in Nebraska.
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The Sun Haven - See Solar Examples
In each newsletter we feature a question and answer about renewable energy and related issues. Please send your questions to nebraskansforsolar@gmail.com
Q: What state programs / loans / incentives are there currently available for adding solar to a new home construction? – Eric R.
A: Eric, thank you for your question, one that’s frequently asked by home and business owners interested in solar, and so we appreciate your sending it. The first resource, below, is one we highly recommend, along with the “Customer-Owned Generation” web pages of our largest utilities. If you live in a community in which you receives service from another utility, check out its website resources.
Customer-Owned Generation
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Thank you for all you are doing to advance renewable energy in our state!
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