Solar online guides and maps  

The Solar Market Pathways project supports innovative solar projects intending to increase solar energy adoption by reducing solars costs. These aims produce online tools and guides to help the community make more informed choices about solar energy.
 

Duluth Shines

A nonprofit organization worked with the City of Duluth, the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Center for Spatial Analysis, and the National Renewable Energy Lab to create a free online device that provides information on assessing solar exposure, size of a potential system, potential costs and energy production, and incentives that are available. It has an estimate to design a rooftop system and promptly. 
 

Solar decision tools and guides

Apartment and condo owners are often disqualified from purchasing solar because they don’t have direct access to solar panels on the roof. California is one of few states to give a  virtual net energy metering (NEM) tariff to credit energy output from one solar system to tenants in a building. It first began working with low-income buildings, then expanded to all multi-tenant and multi-meter residential, commercial, and industrial properties. Surprisingly only a handful from the three million apartment buildings have taken advantage of the tariff. This is sadly due to a lack of awareness and  implementation obstacles along the way.

To revive this market, the Center for Sustainable Energy established Virtual Net Metering Toolkits for businesses. The kits provide roadmaps, checklists, worksheets, interconnection resources, multi-family density maps to help target and sell to California solar prospects.
 
Joint procurement guides

When the Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia (CICV) choose to expand solar energy on state campuses, there was only a meager 6 MW of solar within the state. The goal was to work with 15 member colleges to form and deploy 30 MW of solar on schools that serve 30,000 students. The aim was to move away from using coal to solar energy. Assessments were formed and multi-year Solar Master Plans for campuses, placed them out to bid. It expanded  their purchasing power to bring down costs by providing  their online materials that consists of spreadsheets, standard power purchase agreement contracts, and checklists just to name a few.

These tremendously helpful tools, maps, calculators, and self help solar guides offer an array of assistance across the United States. By learning from the Solar Market Pathways projects, others can decrease soft costs and accelerate solar movement. If you want to move into the future and join the solar revolution, or if you want to find out what solar panels are right for you, go to HahaSmart.com and try our price checker tool. You can see how much a system will cost, and how much you can save over the next 20 years. Don't forget to visit our solar blog section for more handy guides and articles.