Federal Grant to Create More Local Opportunities for Solar Power

Municipal leaders from , and Wilkinsburg will have a major hand this year in developing ordinances for the region that will both encourage and foster the use of and energy sources throughout local neighborhoods.

In an effort to help advance the use of solar power, the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $315,697 to a coalition of private and public organizations—including the Congress of Neighboring Communities (CONNECT) program of the Center for Metropolitan Studies in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh—to help standardize and streamline ordinances and processes for the installation of solar power in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

“It’s creating a model so these things can be consistent across the region,” said Jay Rickabaugh, project coordinator with CONNECT. “Thirty to 40 percent of costs can be reduced by having all the regulations standardized across the community—for instance, we all use a three-prong outlet and that is standardized, so this will create a similar regulation for solar power.”

The Rooftop Solar Challenge, a DOE SunShot Initiative, awarded a total of $12 million to 22 teams across the country to help increase solar power installation in homes and businesses in communities and reduce administrative costs for installing the systems.

The SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort to make solar power cost-competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade. This Southwestern Pennsylvania solar power grant was the only Keystone State Application approved by the DOE’s Rooftop Solar Challenge.

Kathy Risko, associate director of CONNECT, said the grant will allow community leaders to come together and create a model for an ordinance that will inform residents on how to use solar power.

“This will encourage the installation of solar panels in communities because those codes will be there for consideration,” Risko said.

Pennsylvania trails behind the average across both the state and the country when it comes to alternative energy sources, Rickabaugh said.

“Some of that is because 25 years ago, those panels weren’t able to pick up energy from a grey day like today, but that technology has improved and people are holding onto those old perceptions—when it’s simply not true,” he said.

Forest Hills and Wilkinsburg signed on to be a part of the grant. While Edgewood Council did not, Pat Schaefer, Edgewood Council President, also serves as chair of CONNECT. Risko said other communities across the state all will still benefit because they too can attend meetings and adopt the ordinances developed out of this project.

“CONNECT is proud to be a partner in this consortium of organizations working together to bring progressive environmental practices to our region,” Schaefer said in a news release. “Together as CONNECT, the urban core communities have yet another example of the good work that can be done by local governments that understand the importance of working with each other to the benefit of each of our communities.”

The one-year initiative starts in January with a kick-off event for partners, followed by research, stakeholder interviews, focus group meetings and centralizing a permitting process and legal reviews of the model ordinance, Risko said. The project also will create a county-wide registration system, and complete surveying.

In August 2012, a campaign for municipalities to adopt these ordinances will then begin to finish out the year.

Rickabaugh said the time is now for local communities and councils to get involved in encouraging the use of solar power.

“Federal money doesn’t come around this region every day so this opportunity is a great—free model ordinances developed for them with their input,” Rickabaugh said.

Risko said the collaborative project also makes the region as a whole look more progressive and forward thinking when it comes to energy and issues.

“It goes to show that local governments are looking at bigger picture issues in providing options for their residents,” Risko said.