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Get DOE's Updated Solar Guidebook for Local Governments

Solar panels in Palm Desert, CA

As more local governments set up solar panels to capture the sun's energy, the Department of Energy is capturing something nearly as valuable: their lessons learned.

Today DOE's Solar America Communities program released the second edition of "Solar Powering Your Community: A Guide for Local Governments," a free, comprehensive resource to help local governments scale solar in their communities. The Guide is designed to help any local government understand the range of strategies, successes, policies, and programs trailblazed by DOE's original 25 Solar America Cities. A little more than a year has passed since DOE released the first edition of the Guide. What's different in the second edition?

"Profiles of new innovations and market developments, and additional case studies that share in-depth experience from leading local governments," says Lisa Milligan, ICLEI USA's Director of Sustainable Energy, who is leading up ICLEI's partnership with DOE to deliver technical trainings and guidance to local governments based on the Guide.

View the Guide

Inside the Guide

DOE's Solar America Communities website describes the Guide as follows:

The guide introduces a range of policy and program options that have been successfully field tested in cities and counties around the country. The guide describes each policy or program, followed by more information on:

• Benefits: Identifies benefits from implementing the policy or program.
• Implementation Tips and Options: Outlines various tips and options for designing and implementing the policy or program.
• Examples: Highlights experiences from communities that have successfully implemented the policy or program.
• Additional References and Resources: Lists additional reports, references, and tools that offer more information on the topic, where applicable.

San Francisco Passes Sweeping Building Energy Efficiency Law

Yesterday the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved groundbreaking policy aimed at transforming commercial buildings from the biggest energy users in the city to the biggest energy savers.

The newly adopted “Existing Commercial Building Energy Performance Ordinance” requires commercial property owners to measure and rate, or “benchmark” the energy performance of their buildings and make energy ratings available to the public. The ordinance also requires owners to conduct energy audits every five years.

While benchmarking and auditing will be relatively new practices for smaller building owners, many large property managers already use these proven energy-saving techniques, including those profiled below.

This decision comes just a week after President Obama unveiled his “Better Buildings Initiative” aimed at reducing energy use in buildings by 20 percent by 2020 by improving the energy efficiency of buildings.

Benchmarking building energy performance is widely regarded as the critical first step that owners can take to start taking control of energy use and costs; and more cities and states are starting to require owners to do so, including Seattle, New York City, Austin and Washington D.C. and California and Washington state.

Below is additional information on San Francisco’s new law and similar efforts around the nation:

The Clean Energy Road to 2035 Paved by the Hard Work of Local Governments

Originally published on the Huffington Post by Martin Chavez, ICLEI USA Executive Director

During his State of the Union address, President Obama threw down the innovation gauntlet to Congress and the American people in declaring that 80 percent of our nation's energy will come from clean energy sources by 2035. This ambitious target is both necessary and achievable -- and local governments have been demonstrating for years why and how that's the case.

Why It's a Worthwhile Goal

While President Obama framed his clean energy target as a way to boost American innovation -- and, in turn, "win the future" -- there are several other reasons why this goal is particularly worthy of a 21st century Apollo Program. Following the State of the Union, both Mayor Patrick Hays of North Little Rock, Arkansas and I made the case that significantly increasing clean energy production in line with the President's target is necessary for the sustained prosperity and well-being of all Americans.

Indeed, clean energy has been a proven job creator: through the decade preceding the financial crisis -- at a time when Washington was largely deaf to calls for support for the clean energy sector -- clean energy jobs grew at a faster rate than the overall jobs growth rate, employing over 700,000 people. As we move into the new normal economy and the global demand for clean energy technologies expands, the "clean energy creates jobs" mantra is only going to become more familiar: according to a 2010 report by the Pew Environment Group, investments in clean energy could equal $2.3 trillion over the next 10 years.