How are the Special Projects different from the original Solar America City projects?
The original Solar America City awards, made in 2007 and 2008, supported comprehensive, city-wide approaches to increasing solar energy use. The 25 Solar America Cities explored financing mechanisms, conducted outreach, developed training programs, evaluated codes and permitting procedures, and many installed solar systems on city facilities. The Special Projects awards represent a significant increase in funding that will enable the selected cities to implement larger scale solutions to the challenges identified through the original Solar America City projects. The Special Projects represent the best individual projects proposed by the cities; these projects have significant potential to impact the solar market, whether through programs that spur widespread deployment, or by investigating a novel application for solar energy such as integration into emergency planning.
