Equitable Solar Deployment in SolSmart Communities Webinar – Text Version Here is the transcript of the webinar, “Equitable Solar Deployment in SolSmart Communities,” presented in November 2021 by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office. ………………………………………….. Garrett Nilsen: I’m ready to get started whenever you are, Susanna. Susanna Murley, DOE Solar Office: Great. Thank-you, everyone, for being here today. We are looking forward to talking about our program SolSmart, and to kick us off is Garrett, the director of the Solar Energy Technologies Office. Garrett Nilsen: Thank-you, Susanna. Thank-you for everyone for being here today. Just a quick reminder that this session is being recorded, just so to be aware as we have discussions. Please make sure you submit any questions that you might have in the chat and we can be sure to answer those at the end. If you’re running into any technical difficulties at all, please chat or email Tiffany Jones at the email address supplied or through the chat function in Zoom. So without further ado, my name is Garrett Nilsen. I’m the acting director of the Solar Energy Technologies Office. I’m just thrilled that you're all able to join for this discussion here today. The Solar Energy Technologies Office is most well-known for our research, pushing the field of solar energy forward in the areas of photovoltaics, grid technologies, concentrating solar thermal power and thermal storage, the manufacturing and commercialization of solar energy technologies, and of course our work in the area of reducing soft costs to increase the deployment of solar energy, or the very easy deployment of solar energy, which we're here to talk about today. The Solar Energy Technologies Office is appropriated funds by Congress, and we fund research and development across a variety of different actors and universities, national labs, businesses, nonprofits, and we work a great deal with the local governments, which is one of our main topics for discussion here today. We need a tremendous amount of solar energy to fight climate change; solar energy also has the ability to lower energy bills, create jobs, and decarbonize our electricity system by 2035 and the entire energy sector by 2050 in line with the very ambitious Biden Administration goals. Today we've got about 2 gigawatts AC of solar energy deployed in the U.S. This represents about 3% of generation. In order to hit the goals that I just outlined we need about 1 terawatt of deployment by 2035 and 1.6 terawatts by 2050. This would ultimately represent about 45% of the energy supply to the U.S., to decarbonize the energy system by 2050. Solar will need to grow an average of 30 gigawatts AC per year between now and 2025, then ramp to 60 gigawatts per year in 2025 to 2030. That is four times our current rate as we just most recently deployed about 15 gigawatts AC solar energy. This is a tremendous increase of what is needed in order to hit our decarbonization goals. But, ultimately, this will be worth the avoided climate damages and improved air quality could result in savings of $1.1 to $1.7 trillion, with a “T,” between 2020 and 2050. All of these numbers I just outlined come from a very recently released solar future study, which was funded by CO and executed by National Renewable Energy Lab. We're seeing a big, long-lens look at what we can be doing in the potential for solar energy, here in the United States. What's also pretty incredible, being able to provide all those benefits, it's also, it shouldn't have an appreciable increase over, say, business-as-usual scenarios, in terms of the ultimate cost to the end consumer. So making sure that again we're doing all this transition, we're reaping a number of savings, and we are making sure that we're not raising costs. So at the end of the day, all communities will need to benefit from a clean energy transition. And we especially are focused on those that have historically been under-resourced or overburdened by fossil energy. Low- and medium-income communities and communities of color have been disproportionately harmed by the fossil fuel system. The clean energy transition presents a great opportunity to mitigate some of these issues and help deliver more benefits. As part of this, the DOE’s Justice 40 Initiative is a plan to deliver 40% of the overall benefits of climate investments to disadvantaged communities and use funding from SETO to inform equitable research, development, and deployment to help further the department and its goals, and the administration goals. Not only do these communities need a seat at the table, they need a voice to help shape federal priorities and funding decisions that are made by entities like the Department of Energy. Of course to do this, we need to drive down solar soft costs. So what is a soft cost? The easiest way I've had to explain it is it's something you can't feel in your hands, or if you drop it it's not going to break your phone. So it's these other issues like permanent siting, interconnection, workforce, and the myriad of other small costs that end up adding up to making a hardware system that should be one amount appreciably more expensive. For example, in a new residential system soft costs represent over 60% of the total costs in the system. That’s 60% of the funds going to things that are not actually generating electrons that you can consume in your home or consume on your local grid. Reducing soft costs always increase solar deployment, as we would make solar more and more competitive and increase the savings that can be delivered to consumers. DOE works to ensure the impacts of these works results in measurable bill reductions, and again we want to make sure we're increasing nonmonetary benefits, as well and, ultimately, supporting the growth of wealth. This all brings us to SolSmart and why we're here today. SolSmart is a national designation program that helps local governments make it faster and easier and more affordable for residents and businesses to go to solar. SolSmart communities help reduce primary times, [inaudible] zoning codes, help it install solar on local communities, [Inaudible] group by programs and much, much more. This program has been under the great leadership of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, formerly the Solar Foundation, and the International City-County Management Association. I cannot applaud the work that these groups have done thus far enough, to bring us to where we are today and more that we might be able to do in the future. I just really want to thank everyone who's part of those groups for all the effort that they've done today, to see what we can do next. The designation ultimately shows that our community has removed barriers, and they are open for solar business. They get points by accomplishing different elements of making solar easier and are ultimately awarded with a bronze, silver, or gold designation. And today we are lucky to have over 400 communities in the U.S. that have done this. And this makes these communities, or helps these communities, I should say, meet their sustainability goals, attract businesses to do work in their areas, and create jobs. DOE has set a new goal to have 60 more SolSmart communities designated by March 2022, and we're really excited to have all of you help bring this. I should just say again that soft costs are a major challenge for what we're up to, and this program is really one of the tips of the spear. And we can make all the technology developments and progress that we want, but ultimately it's soft costs like these that are going to need to be reduced so that we can see the fullest and widest scale deployment of solar energy in U.S. as quickly as we need to fight climate change. Having said all that, I want to make sure that we do some introductions of folks who will be talking to us soon, and some of the roundtable participants. So first, Toyah Callahan. She's the deputy director for the SolSmart program at the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, also known as IREC. Toyah has provided technical assistance for over 100 communities including the U.S. Virgin Islands, and led SolSmart designation reviews on an additional 90 communities. She's currently working to extend SolSmart work municipalities in Puerto Rico. And I want to thank Toyah for all the hard work she's done to date, hoping she has a little bit more energy to hit some future goals. And so with that I will just be quiet and let Toyah go right ahead. So Toyah, we're gonna hand it over to you. Toyah Callahan, SolSmart and IREC: Perfect. Thank-you so much, Garrett, and good morning, good afternoon. I know some of us are in different time zones, so definitely want to say good morning to you, as well. So in order for us to play a role in expanding solar equity nationwide, the SolSmart program has developed tools and resources to ensure that local governments have a path to establish an equity solar future. So we'll explore this throughout the presentations today. And I just also want to point out the program is making an effort to work with under-resourced and underserved communities across the country. So I’ll go ahead and start us off and I’ll give you an overview of what the SolSmart program is. Next slide, please. Alright, perfect. As Garrett mentioned, SolSmart is a national designation technical assistance program that is designed to help local governments across the country and make it easier, faster and affordable for their residents and businesses to go solar. So the program did start off in 2016 and we've had really a lot of great success. We've worked with cities, counties, towns, and villages across the country, as well as regional organizations. And really the key objective is to help these communities to address the barriers to going solar. So really making sure that they’re fostering the growth of mature local solar markets. And after the designation, ensuring that they're open for solar business. So really making it attractive for solar companies and businesses to come in and develop. SolSmart provides technical assistance that does not cost the community anything, so there's no cost associated with communities participating in the program. Next slide. All right, so in terms of the SolSmart actions, I just like to point out that the three main areas that we target in terms of technical assistance. So one is to increase transparency, which is really important. And our team helps communities develop a permitting online checklist. So really that's a place where the community can really address what the permitting process entails. And then we work with communities to develop a solar landing page, which is essentially a repository for anything solar related. So if I’m applying for a permit, how long does that take? What's the inspection process? What areas of – sorry, what districts is solar allowed as an accessory? So all that information would be on the solar landing page, as well as any incentives that the particular community is providing. Some communities actually get really creative and have a solar map of all the solar potential in their region or in the community, so that is something that would also be on their solar landing page. We also work with communities to help increase departmental understanding. So we provide training on best practices for permitting and inspection, as well as planning and zoning, and all these trainings are aligned with industry best practices. We also work with communities to reduce barriers. So we'll look at each and every community’s ordinance to make sure that we highlight any areas that it has intentional or unintentional barriers to solar deployment. We will highlight that in a memo. And we provide these findings to the community. Now some communities are completely silent on solar and the ordinances, and we provide the language that they can adopt to make sure that solar PV is a buyer right accessory use in their ordinance. Next slide, please. So, in terms of the SolSmart structure, this is something that Garrett had already mentioned, as well. The Interstate Renewable Energy Council where I work leads the technical assistance side of the program, and then the International City-County Management Association leads a designation side of the program. Two really strong organizations. And within our structure we have an excellent team of organizations that work with us to provide excellent technical assistance and designation skills to communities. So we have the National League of Cities, and you will be hearing from my colleague Nick Kasza today, as well, who works there. And the Great Plains Institute. I can always go ahead and name all of these, but it's quite clear that we have an excellent team that really provides excellent technical assistance, and some of some of these organizations have deep expertise in solar as well as local government. Next slide. So I absolutely love this slide. I always like to brag a little bit about the SolSmart program, and I’m so proud to say that we have over 400 communities that have gone through the process and successfully received designation, 163 that are gold, 103 that are silver, and 150 that are bronze. And we do see a lot of communities that come in and start off at bronze and then they decide, hey, we want to get to two gold or silver. So it's always great to see those coming back in for higher designation. And really this represents 41 states plus the District of Columbia and probably a territory that I got to work with, the U.S. Virgin Islands, that received bronze designation last year. And this really represents 101 million people, so over one in four residents live in a city or county or community that is actually SolSmart designated. Up to date we've actually worked with nine regional organizations and successfully designated them, as well. Next slide. And also, I just want to make sure that we do have a goal to get to 500 designated communities by March. So, in terms of one interesting development that we had is last year, we engaged an independent team to conduct a third-party evaluation of the SolSmart program. So we really wanted to understand the impact of SolSmart, and the findings were really interesting. So I do encourage folks that are on this call to get a chance to look at that evaluation, especially if you're interested in the SolSmart program. So the evaluation found that in SolSmart designated communities there was an increase in solar capacity by 69 kilowatts per month, on average. So that was about a 67% increase. And also the number of installations increased by 62%. So that was really exciting for us to see. And across the country SolSmart led to approximately 300 to 450 megawatts of additional solar capacity and 12,800 to 19,200 new installations. So really, this was an amazing snapshot. It was a great way for us to really get a glimpse at how impactful this program is. Next slide. And also, in addition to that, other findings were SolSmart speeds up the permitting process for solar installations by 7.5 days on average. So really reducing those timelines for local governments, solar companies and consumers. And then also the surveys that the third-party evaluator did, their findings were the local government, industry officials said that the biggest impact of the SolSmart program was increased knowledge about solar energy. So really working on that awareness and education of the program. And then really related to what we're talking about today, we realized that communities with fewer resources, especially staff and funding, were less likely to participate in SolSmart. So we really made a keen effort to ensure that we change that and more communities are able to participate in the program. And also, if we're looking at monetary impact, SolSmart delivers for communities about 10 million in taxpayer funds for SolSmart led to one point – sorry, one to 2 billion in additional solar investments. So really interesting facts that we're finding here. Next slide. So, in terms of what we're doing right now, SolSmart has two areas of equity focus. So one is we focus outreach and technical assistance on entire underserved communities that are facing resource and staffing constraints. So really typically you see the small rural communities in this category. And to support these communities, we have developed streamlined criteria. So we spent a lot of last year and this year focusing on streamlining our criteria, particularly emphasizing that it was accessible to those underserved communities. And then also we streamlined our additional technical assistance resources. We created templates that are easy for communities to use, as well as examples and additional guidance for these communities. And then one thing that I’m actually really proud of, which I actually manage this, is the advisor. And the advisors are essentially organizations or individuals that work directly with communities to provide technical assistance on SolSmart designation. So this year, we launched our fourth round of advisors, and our focus was really for these advisors to help underserved communities. And you know, I won't go ahead and name all of the states that we're looking at, but particularly we're looking at Alabama, Puerto Rico, and Ohio. And today, you’ll actually hear from one of our advisors who is focusing on the Ohio region. And then also our second area of equity focus is really to provide resources to assist underserved populations within larger communities, so really LMI neighborhoods within the larger city. And without we provided some equity guidance and that is also information that can be found on the website. And I think that wraps up my presentation, so thank-you for this opportunity. Garrett Nilsen: That was a great presentation. I just really want to hammer home that, you know, 1,600 kilowatts a month might not seem like a lot at first blush. When you think about that month after month, year after year, decade after decade, it's those kinds of wins that ultimately allow us to grow the industry quickly. And I do want to thank all of the advisors. They're really the glue that makes this program work, or the gears that make the engine run, whatever analogy you like to see, but this is a really excellent work, and all that. So without further ado I’d like to move to our roundtable, which I’m very excited to hear from our moderators, Nick Karza. Nick is a program manager for the sustainability team at the National League of Cities. He helps provide local governments with the resources and solutions they need to become more sustainable. His primary responsibility at the National League of Cities is to support the SolSmart program. As part of the SolSmart team, Nick recruits new communities to participate in the program and creates new best practices, resources, and provides technical assistance to local governments to help them achieve their desired goals. Part of this great panel that we have ahead and first up. We have Jon-Paul d’Aversa as a principal at UNPREDICTABLEcity, a firm dedicated to repairing and replacing social constructs that lead to poor health and livelihood outcomes. As a certified planner he has worked with over 90 of local, state, and national government, private-sector organizations, and nonprofits with specific focus on energy systems and their impact on local policy. He is a SolSmart advisor that is located in [inaudible]. Next, Alon Abramson, who is the director of residential programs at the Philadelphia Energy Authority, where he oversees Solarizes, the solar filling program, the largest size innovative built-to-last program and public private partnerships that goes with it, the American water resources. All of Alon’s programmatic work has a central focus on equitable access to stable, affordable housing and leveraging clean energy, to provide a long term utility. And last, but certainly not least, is Neal Denton. Neal is a sustainability officer for the City of Santa Fe, where he [inaudible] efforts in the city sustainability and design schools. He has more than 12 years of experience working in fields such as sustainable materials management, transportation, clean energy, and surface water quality. You can see we have a very esteemed group here, and I will just close my mouth and let take them. Nick, I’ll pass it over to you. Nick Kasza | NLC & SolSmart: Sounds good; thank-you very much for that introduction, Garrett, and thank-you to all the panelists that are joining me here today. We're going to jump right into it, and I think this first question actually builds off what Toyah just said. She mentioned that SolSmart really has kind of two focuses when we define equity. One is for under-resourced and staff-challenged communities, and then the other is for underserved populations within larger communities. And so we know that the definition of equity can kind of be flexible, and so I think we're going to start off with Jon-Paul: In your work, how do you, and how does your organization, define equity? Jon-Paul d’Aversa, UNPREDICTABLEcity: So yeah, it's definitely something that everybody seems to have a little bit different take on, and I think that's really a strength behind it, and it really gives us more of a holistic perspective behind it. But I guess generally, equity is really the state of our systems when our differences don't dictate whether we succeed, or whether we thrive in our lives, right? And so regardless of our race, our income, our age, our abilities, you know, we can all meet our needs and progress. And, interestingly, to get there, we really have to focus on our individual differences. And I think justice plays a really big role in that, and so, as we consider this, you know, it's really an approach that thinks about the characteristics of that individual. And so we tend to use the phrase, you know, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps,” but when it comes down to it, not everyone has the same length bootstraps. Not everyone necessarily has bootstraps or boots, for that matter. And on top of all that, not everybody has the ability to pull. So we're really expecting almost the impossible from a lot of people in our society, and when we start to think about all the ways that manifests, all the different ways that that manifests in our lives, we are taking that equitable approach to how we implement something, whether it's solar panels, or whatever new technology happens to come around the corner. Nick Kasza | NLC & SolSmart: Excellent. Thank-you very much, great start. I will turn it over to Alon now. And you know, Philadelphia is a very large city, very diverse city. Philadelphia Energy Authority has kind of a wide-ranging mission and vision. How does the organization build equity into its everyday projects and initiatives? Alon Abramson, Philadelphia Energy Authority: Thanks. I appreciate that. Not only the sixth largest city in the country but also the largest the fourth largest big city in America, as well. So we definitely have some challenges. And you know, meeting our goals, one thing I can say is, I think we played a slightly unique role as a government agency, where we're looking at energy as a lever to kind of drive equity, drive health, really, you know, drive a lot of solutions. So we're working first from a up now using those built-in energy savings and these have a list kind of be the mechanisms to help us reach these larger goals. But on the topic of equity, you know, I think Jon-Paul said a lot on you know, kind of the said a lot that needs to be said here, but the one piece I want to add is nor consideration, especially, you know, I’ll kind of focus on solar here. You know there's this – solar is really mostly accessible to folks who have capital upfront to pay for it, right? So at the end of the day, it’s really a question of, you know, how do we make solar affordable, folks? And so there's a couple of ways we're looking at this one. In some ways are reducing first cost to nothing, to lease options. But the other piece, you know, to really drive at equity, Jon-Paul's point that like now, and the bootstrap example that you know, not everybody can all right, but not everybody can even have solar on their roofs because their homes are in such poor condition, right? So in thinking a little bit more holistically about homes, more holistically about people situations, I would not starting necessarily from solar as the point of entry, but thinking about, you know, what people need to feel stable in their homes, to be able to remain in their homes. And then how can solar be another component to kind of help reduce costs, reduce their, you know, their utility costs and make that home more affordable in the long term? So kind of thinking about equity in that respect as well. I think I’ll stop there, and talk more about the programs in next questions. Nick Kasza | NLC & SolSmart: As good. Thank-you. We’ll go to Neal to kind of close up that first question in terms of, Neal, how does, how do you, and how does the city of Santa Fe, define equity in terms of your sustainability work and solar energy programs? Neal Denton, City of Santa Fe: Yeah, well, you know, it's always wanting to go last. Jon-Paul and Alon have put it very well, especially as Jon-Paul pointed out where your zip code is not a predictor of your life outcomes. We’ll always have, you know, just as humans will always have work in front of us to make that not the case where, you know, it doesn't matter what school you go to, for example, have good educational outcomes. But from the lens of the city of Santa Fe, it's something that's really important for us to add is that how important it is to lead with social and racial equity in all of our actions, as opposed to, you know, some terminology might be like using an equity lens or something. Or, you know, evaluating – there might be a tendency to put together an equity committee that does equity work over here on the side, but what I’m pointing out is the importance of all projects, programs, policies should be leading with equity in terms of prioritization within the city. And we certainly do that within my office. The things that we go forward with are designed to bring people who are closer to the pain closer to power, which is really hard to do. The word “justice” is really important, you know. Equity is not about the equality. It's about making sure that, you know, regardless of the language you speak or where you were born, or how much income you have, you can access the same resources that are available to all others in Santa Fe. Nick Kasza | NLC & SolSmart: Absolutely. It's giving everyone kind of an equal opportunity to take advantage of the solar future that is here now, and hopefully growing in the near term. I think we've all – or all of you've kind of already alluded to some of this but we'll touch on it still, Jon-Paul, in terms of working with more rural communities, what are the equity issues that they're facing? Jon-Paul d’Aversa, UNPREDICTABLEcity: So there's a few in general, but specific to rural and kind of like the ones that are all-inclusive is – you know, of course cost is always an issue. I mean, that's huge. And it's something that, you know, conceptually we have the ability to impact, whether it's through the technology or whether it's through incentives. But kind of one of the big ones that we haven't tackled yet is really this process literacy. So you know, for instance, how many of us have actually submitted for a permit, to get a permit application, right, or how many of us have been part of an inspection or filed paperwork with our public utilities commission. Or for that matter, how many of us know what documentation is needed in order to apply for that tax deduction for installing a solar panel? You know, these technologies and, more importantly, these take time. And if you're raising a family on a lower income and you work an hourly job, this is time that you probably don't have, and it's time that's going to cost you money in order to navigate your way through. And so the whole literacy side behind it, that's not to call anyone illiterate, but it's that these programs are difficult. They're not straightforward. This isn't as easy as just signing your name to something and checking a box. There's a lot more to it. So there's a commitment just to be a part of it. And it's a commitment that a lot of people can’t participate in. And especially as we get it out into more rural areas, it becomes even more of a stretch for these people to participate in. A couple other things, just to mention briefly. Alon, you were alluding to this. Rental housing is a huge issue. A lot of the populations that we are trying to impact, they’re renters, and unless you have your landlord on board that's going to be a really difficult challenge to get solar panels on your home. One specific thing that is general to all of Ohio is that, you know, community solar is a great way to kind of circumvent some of these issues. Unfortunately we don't have a virtual net metering policy and investment utility territory, which means we can't implement community solar programs for the vast majority of people in Ohio. And that's very specific to the rural community, as well. Nick Kasza | NLC & SolSmart: Thank-you. I’ll turn it over to Alon and/or Neal, if you have anything to add, because I feel, you know, communities across the country, a lot of times are facing some very similar issues when it comes to solar equity and ensuring equitable access. Alon, do you have any anything you’d like to add? Alon Abramson, Philadelphia Energy Authority: I’ll let Neal go [inaudible] but I’ll chime in at the end. Neal Denton, City of Santa Fe: Thanks a lot. Yeah, I think, though, I would just echo Jon-Paul’s sentiments about the process being, you know, very difficult for people to navigate and, you know, participate in. But you know, I should point out, we are a SolSmart bronze community, which meant we took some steps to simplify that process with a, you know, flat permit, you know, low-cost permit fee $40, and putting that checklist online and making the process easier for people. But regardless, you know, it still Is navigating everything, even working with a solar company and understanding the estimate. And then you're getting into working with your lender and understanding debt-to-income ratios and interest rates and, in some cases even dealing with a lender, a bank or a credit union, is a significant barrier for some people. So you know, anything we can do at the city level or the nonprofit level to help with that process will go a long way. That's something that we're working on here in Santa Fe through our Solar I Santa Fe program. Basically myself as the sustainability officer, I offer what you call a solar concierge service and walk people through the process answering any questions for technical assistance. I think people having someone to call on to help with those other than the solar company is very important. And lastly, I’ll just echo Jon-Paul's points about renters and community solar. That's the same here. We have, you know – you can't really be low income for, and, you know, really moderate income and own a home in Santa Fe. Our median home prices are 570,000 at this point. So you know, our legislature here in New Mexico just passed the Community Solar Act in January and are making the rules. And we'll be able to do community solar developments in the spring of next year. And we're really looking forward to, you know, allowing for renters and [inaudible]to be able to see the benefits of solar energy. That's really important when we're talking about low- to moderate-income households, you know, most people aren’t in the position of owning their own home. Solutions for renters couldn't be more important. Alon Abramson, Philadelphia Energy Authority: Not a ton more to add here, and I’ll just echo the need for technical assistance, and for that technical assistance to come from a trusted third party. It's not the solar Installers, just so folks do have a place to go, and even if it's just, you know – I know a lot of folks maybe on this call don't have staffing capacity to offer that technical assistance, but then even just having a [inaudible] on a government website, you know, and really help a lot with, I think, right now, because solar is just still kind of a bit of a novelty for folks or you know, maybe new, and a lot of markets are still breaking in, just having some place to go for peace of mind, you know, there's not really some steps you can take or some way to pair, offset, you know anything really to help you know that the decision you're making is going to be good, [inaudible] offering you know, whatever it might be. Just one thing I’ll say, we're a SolSmart gold community, so, you know, we've been kind of in this for a bit. We've done the permitting streamlining, definitely permission online. We've run our Solarize program now for – we're in our fifth year, the largest Solarize around the country. But we still see that there's a lot of work to do. And one thing that we've added this year and I just want to note here, on sort of other communities that haven't been moving as quickly as we want is support for commercial property owners, which I think is as close as we can get in Philly to rural. You know, large-scale owners, you know, they might have the capacity to put in large systems. Or there, really the support is, you know, in procurement, so they might need help with our fees. They might need help with finance. There's just kind of a whole different offering, and so we are brought in additional capacity at the energy authority to help with that. And we also just launched a Green Bank affiliate that also can help with financing some of these projects. And so things I wanted to note. Nick Kasza | NLC & SolSmart: Excellent. Those are all very, very thorough answers. I like the pitches for a lot of the work that SolSmart does in terms of improving transparency, making sure information is easily accessible, and hopefully in simple terms, plain language, easy checklists, diagrams, graphics, so folks are able to understand those processes, which at the local government level can sometimes be a little bit complex, to say the least. So just trying to be a little more transparent anywhere we can and promote that transparency is a best practice. Again, you've all had really great answers so far. In terms of achieving equity goals for solar and your respective localities are working with rural communities, what does success mean? And obviously we want to see more solar deployed, whether it's in LMI communities or rural communities, but more specifically what type of metrics are you really looking at to track that success? We’ll start with Jon-Paul. Jon-Paul d’Aversa, UNPREDICTABLEcity: Let's go to somebody else first; I got a list ready. Nick Kasza | NLC & SolSmart: OK, let's go to Alon. Alon Abramson, Philadelphia Energy Authority: Sure. So for one thing we identified what we kind of term is no low and moderate income, and so that helps with tracking this. So we've defined this as below 80% of our area median income, just really, again, not low income. So we categorize that as low and moderate. A median income in the Philadelphia metro is quite high, as you imagine. So that’s one thing. And then we have done this in a couple of ways, but what we're trying to do to make things easier for our partners to help us track what we're doing and kind of reaching these low- and moderate-income communities is basically have them sign an affidavit, the Installers themselves, to basically use the other programs as proxies for that those income levels. And that and then they, you know, are able to submit that to us and we can track, you know, our installs in those communities that way. There's a little bit of an incentive that comes from us in our Solarize program. We charge a fee to our partners for market rate projects and we support them. Right now it's a solar lease model that we're doing for low- and moderate-income homes. So we’re supporting them with an SRM repurchase model, and so that, after, you know, that that kind of helps incentivize them to collect those affidavits and really track report out on the that penetration in the LMI community. So that's kind of what we're doing there. And of course the tracking is one thing, trying to actively reach those communities and design programs that are going to be accessible to them, that’s a lot more of what you know I’m thinking about on the day-to-day basis. And that a lot of that is just building trust, you know, with community organizations, not necessarily coming in as the government agency, but working with the other organizations that people already trust in those communities. And Philadelphia's very community-based; I’m sure the other folks experienced that, as well. So it's trying to get as close to the grassroots as you can, explaining what the program offering is, that it's safe, you know, especially with the solar release. There's a lot of scary stuff that has happened in the past, and so, you know, we put a lot of guard rails around our program and get that word out that this is an OK thing to do. Nick Kasza | NLC & SolSmart: Thank-you for that. Neal, you want to chime in with anything? Neal Denton, City of Santa Fe: Sure, yeah. So for how we measure success in reaching – well, in equity within solar, you know, since there's such a divide between the haves and the have-nots, yeah, definitely use that 80% AMI to define, you know, the target demographic. We want to make sure we're helping afford solar energy with our solar program, as you know, people who are above that can just, you know, call around, get a few quotes. Arguably they can afford it and don't really need any additional assistance. And it's really important to work with a community-based organization on the messaging, the Solarize program, as Alon pointed out. That neighbor to neighbor, person to person, building of trust, that's really essential. In terms of hard numbers, you know, we've done marketing of this program that's underway that started in September and lasts through July of next year within Santa Fe public schools. If you think about it, you know, public schools are a great trusted messenger. Emails and messages that come from the schools tend to be read and largely trusted. And we've marketed this to the employees, I should clarify, not the parents and students of the schools. And by doing so, about 20% of the applications we've received are below 80% AMI, which I think is a pretty good metric when you recognize that you have to be a homeowner to take advantage of this program and there's not an abundance of homeowners who are below that point. So this program, I think 20% is a good target, but that's applications. Getting those people to the finish line is much more intensive because we have to help people recognize immediate savings and we're doing that. There's a private contributor who brought $50,000 to the program, and this person is putting $5,000 towards the cost of everyone who qualifies as low to moderate income. And that is making the price so low that those people are deciding to go ahead; basically, they can get a 3 kilowatt system for about $1,200 at the end of it. So that's, you know, the contract signed by the people below 8% AMI. I am hoping that that ends up being 20%. I’d like see that number go up in the future. But we're also tracking another thing. If you're a homeowner that's low to moderate income, really on the low scale of that, we're really talking about someone who lives in a mobile home in Santa Fe. So part of this program, we're donating completely free of charge, through our partners at the Sierra Club, PV on a pole system, a small 1.2 kilowatt full mounted system that can be mounted outside a mobile home. And you know, just the fact that we're installing solar in mobile home parks, where people can see that so clearly and may want to do what their neighbor did and whatnot, we're, you know, measuring that as a success or lack thereof, if we get those projects in the finish line. Nick Kasza | NLC & SolSmart: Excellent. Thank-you. Jon-Paul, I can give you about 30 seconds to cover anything that you think wasn't covered here before we turn it over for a few additional points on SolSmart and its equity guidance. Jon-Paul d’Aversa, UNPREDICTABLEcity: Sure. Just real quick to look at it from the government perspective because I’m working primarily with local governments and a bunch of different varied ones, so number of SolSmart designated communities, in particular, the number of communities that guarantees solar access, the number of people who can afford solar systems, the number of communities that view solar as economic development, number of communities that have solar programs, rental properties that are actively engaged and improving state policy, that you solar is a tool to address energy burden, environmental burden, and economic issues for disadvantaged communities. Nick Kasza | NLC & SolSmart: That was a very thorough list. Excellent. Thank-you very much for that, and thank-you to all the speakers. Don't go anywhere; hopefully we'll be able to do a couple of Q&A questions at the end here, but I am going to turn it back over to Garrett, as he introduces our next speaker. Garrett Nilsen: Awesome. Thank-you, Nick, and everyone. That was a really enlightening panel. I won't even try to highlight my favorite parts. There's a lot of great stuff in there. So without further ado, I’m going to hand it over to Theresa Perry. Theresa is a program director at the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, where she oversees the SolSmart technical assistance program. She has experience producing wind energy, so energy and corporate sustainability. Her current energy equity work includes participation in the energy equity project. So without further ado, I’ll hand it over to Theresa. Theresa Perry, SolSmart & IREC: OK. Thank-you so much. Boy, I've really enjoyed hearing about the work that our SolSmart communities and SolSmart advisors are doing. It's always fantastic to get that very tangible results of the work. So very excited. The SolSmart program has really had equity work in it, involved in it, you know, for LMI criteria, for example, since the program started, but we've really continued to work on how we can reach more communities and do it equitably. I think that, you know, when you look at the goals of what we need to get in place for solar deployment, to address climate change, to reach the goals that we're setting, equity is not just the right thing to do; it also is necessary for making sure that we can reach those goals. So I’m really excited about the work that's happening and continuing to work. This slide, you've seen it already, if it looks familiar. I’m just reminding you that we have two areas of equity that we kind of focus on. And generally it's not that the equity is different; it's simply that our tactics are a little bit different for each focus. So one, again, is to reach those communities who would otherwise completely be left out. So if our focus is on local governments, helping those local governments and the communities and citizens within it get ready for solar to come to their communities, and if this local government doesn't have the resources to participate, they'll simply be left out. So the tactics that we’ve taken to address that are the bullets that we have listed there: We've streamlined the criteria. We have really great technical assistance resources. We’ve created a template so no community has to start from ground one. This helps everybody but really helps those folks that have fewer resources to participate. The other bucket that we have is trying to provide resources to communities that are going through the SolSmart designation process and has populations within it that they want to make sure get included. So either the whole community or a community trying to make sure that everybody is served. And these aren't mutually exclusive; they can work in conjunction with each other. What I’m going to talk to you about is some work we've done in creating this equity guidance for communities going through the process. How can they apply a lens that allows their designation work to lead to more equitable outcomes, with respect to solar? Next slide please. So we did create some guidance. And it's basically going to look at ways that communities can plan for equity in their planning and zoning, engage the community, engage with the utility and make sure in that engagement with the utility they are, in fact, including all neighborhoods, all populations, in that discussion with the utility. How can communities adopt the Solarize campaign? That's a campaign where you can get a discounted rate if a community buys into solar purchase programs for everybody. And then with those Solarize campaigns potentially give the financial incentives that were talked about by our panelists. A lot of LMI folks don't have rooftops at all, so supporting community solar is another way to look at that. So again, we took our criteria and we applied the lens and we came up with guidance. Next slide, please. So this is just an example of how that looks. Toyah told you about some of the different criteria that we have. I've put up just one on planning and zoning. With this one for planning and zoning, you know, if a community decides to do this criteria, train planning staff on best practices in planning and zoning for solar PV, training must have occurred in the past five years. It's more forward with what the criteria says. And our suggestions for an equity lens and, you know, the community can do one or all of them, is to prioritize underserved environmentally impacted parts of the community as targets for future solar development. So as you're going through the training, make sure that this is included and/or evaluate potential plans or opportunities to increase solar development in LMI neighborhood, so selecting the neighborhoods as you're going through your planning and zoning. Consider financial opportunities such as upfront or production-based incentives. So how can you as you're doing planning and zoning make sure that those financial opportunities are put into that planning and zoning. Develop ownership structures and set goals targeting increased percentage. So again, we've taken our criteria and helped communities see what are some of the things that you can do. If you could go to one more slide. I really want to make sure we have time for questions because I've taken a peek and there are some really great ones. But we went ahead and did the same thing with most of our criteria, we were able to easily apply an equity lens. So this is one more example. It's in our government operations category. GO-2 is discuss community goals for solar PV net metering community solar with your local utility. And again, putting the equity lens in, simply making sure that potential development sites are including LMI neighborhoods, making sure that the conversations include leadership from those neighborhoods, from those populations, and looking at sites that will make sure that the impact is going to help those neighborhoods, as well. I have so much more to say, but I would rather go to the questions and have this fantastic SolSmart team answer. So I’m going to stop here and go to the question Q&A from Nick, I think. Nick Kasza | NLC & SolSmart: Oh, I’m back. There is a ton of great questions, so apologize if we don’t get to all of them. I was trying to answer a couple, typing away. But I think one of the first ones we’ll start off with, and this is to Theresa, Toyah or any of our panelists: Over one-third of Americans are renters. What kind of strategies are local governments and entities pursuing to ensure that they are not left out of the upcoming solar transition and that they will be able to also take advantage of the benefits of solar energy? Theresa Perry, SolSmart & IREC: I could start on that, although I think Alon had alluded to some of this, as well as – sorry, I’ve forgotten our Santa Fe person's name ... Nick Kasza | NLC & SolSmart: Neal. Theresa Perry, SolSmart & IREC: I’m thinking of everything here, but I think, yes. I think both of them had great answers, but within the criteria itself and with this equity lens we really talked about that the community solar options as being something that renters can participate in, and finding those programs and making sure they come to your community are just – it's such a great way to make sure that people can participate, even if they are not owning. But would love to hear again from Neil and or Alon on that. Neal Denton, City of Santa Fe: I would just add, in addition to community solar, many states, including New Mexico, are requiring that utilities transition to 100% renewables, so that allows for renters to benefit of those electrons coming through the grid. And then the conversation’s more about getting their residences or businesses off gas, be carbon neutral. I’m also – one of the most effective tools I’m going to spell it has in their toolbox is building codes. Here in Santa Fe we have what's called a home energy rating score that's going to be ratcheted down to 0 by 2030, requiring that all new buildings are carbon neutral. So that will benefit people renting or leasing within those buildings. Then also with our building codes will, you know, began looking at existing buildings. So we're reaching our carbon-neutral goal of 2040 for everyone. Alon Abramson, Philadelphia Energy Authority: I don't have time to add to this, but you know, I’m in Pennsylvania, where we don't have community solar so it's problematic. We do see it as like the way to provide solar for rentals, but I think the only other model that I think could be effective, but it's really, really difficult to implement, is some kind of green lease structure with, you know, the owner basically, paying the utility bills and offsetting that cost on to the tenant. But then you don't really have as much benefit to that tenant as those other potential options. Nick Kasza | NLC & SolSmart: All right, thank-you both. Again, there's a couple of questions here. I’m trying to parse through and figure out what the best one is. But just, you know, there's sometimes some disconnect between what local governments want and what states are doing, and so how are local governments, community organizations impacted by state-level policies that may not be favorable to solar energy deployment? And are you coming up with any type of creative strategies to overcome those hurdles? We just heard Alon say that there's no community solar in Pennsylvania. You're still working through some creative strategies, really pushing Solarize campaigns. What else are your communities doing to kind of promote solar in the face of some challenges? Jon-Paul d’Aversa, UNPREDICTABLEcity: Neal, I don't want to steal your thunder. Neal Denton, City of Santa Fe: First, it kind of seemed like that question was for Alon; I wasn’t sure if that was for all of us. [multiple voices] Alon Abramson, Philadelphia Energy Authority: I think we've sort of captured a lot of what we're doing, and I think the first cost paradigm, you know, issue is having a lot of the reluctance to go solar. You know, we're doing what we can in solar leases to reduce that hurdle, a zero cost option for going solar. Obviously it's not ownership but still guarantee, kind of a guaranteed energy savings model there. And beyond that, you know, it's just – we have a solid rebate that's local, that is currently under-funded by city council, other priorities. It's really a lot of elements, you know, every method that we can find to reduce costs, is what we're doing. Neal Denton, City of Santa Fe: I would just add, you know, it's been said a number of times, and, you know, part of my role in this roundtable is to represent the Solarize Santa Fe program, and I should point out that Alon, we've learned a lot from your program in developing this. So thanks for your leadership in this space. But local governments can run it and administer Solarize programs to lower the cost for everyone. If it's a state that's not as friendly in terms of community solar and things like that, it's challenging for renters as we've discussed. But do what we can. So aside from that, you know, lobbying the state, organizing cities and others to get the state the best community solar acts, which is what we did here in New Mexico would suggest as a next step. Jon-Paul d’Aversa, UNPREDICTABLEcity: The only thing that I’ll add real quickly is Columbus, which is the center of central Ohio, just started one of the largest aggregation programs supplied by 100% renewable energy, utility-scale solar that's new or will be new in the next coming years. So that's local homegrown solar power right there supplying our homes with 100% renewable electricity. Nick Kasza | NLC & SolSmart: Thank-you all for those answers. I realize we're out of time already. I wish we had a little bit more because there's a couple of fantastic questions that still need to be answered. But I believe I will turn it over to Garrett to see if we have any closing remarks. Garrett Nilsen: I just want to thank all of our panelists and presenters today; this was really, really great. There are certainly plenty of great questions. I just want to emphasize in one of those points at the very end that it's awesome when we see communities work with and learn from one another. That's really what this is all about, making sure that the staff are helping, you know, bring their knowledge to all these communities, and help translate lessons learned from one place to another to expedite solar deployment. But I thank everybody for attending today. To learn more, you can go to solsmart.org. You can also find out about all SETO’s events and webinars at energy.gov/seto-events. And also, if you have any other news, you can feel free to sign up for a webinar. Finally, if you want to reach out to any of our speakers, you can see their addresses here. So thank-you, again, everyone, for attending, thank-you for our speaker. And I look forward to seeing the great things that SolSmart will do in the future. Have a great afternoon, everybody.