Texas Solar Collaboration DOE Rooftop Solar Challenge City of Houston Project Summary
- Houston Advanced Research Center, TX (United States)
The City of Houston is committed to achieving a sustainable solar infrastructure. In 2008, Houston was named a United States Department of Energy (DOE) Solar America City. As a Solar America City, Houston teamed with the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), Sandia National Laboratory (Sandia), industry, and academia, to implement the Solar Houston Initiative and prepare the Solar Houston Plan. The Solar Houston initiative was focused on identifying and overcoming barriers associated with establishing a solar infrastructure that is incorporated into the City of Houston’s overall energy plan. A broad group of Houston area stakeholders, facilitated by HARC, came together to develop a comprehensive solar plan that went beyond technology to address barriers and establish demonstrations, public outreach, education programs and other activities. The plan included proposed scopes of work in four program areas: policies, solar integration, public outreach, and education. Through the support of the DOE SunShot Rooftop Solar Challenge (RSC) grant to the Texas Collaboration (San Antonio, Austin, and Hosuton), Houston has been able to implement several of the recommendations of the Solar Houston Plan. Specific recommendations that this project was able to support include; Working with the other Texas Solar America Cities (San Antonio and Austin), to harmonize permitting and inspection processes to simplify for installers and lower soft costs of installation; Participating in state level solar policy groups such as the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association (TRIEA); Continued coordination with the local transmission and distribution utility (CenterPoint) and retail electric providers (REP); Identification of opportunities to improve permitting and interconnection; Providing training on PV systems to City inspectors; Educating the public by continuing outreach, training, and workshops, particularly using the the Green Building Resources Center; Evaluating methods of addressing financial barriers to residential solar; Maintaining www.solarhoustontx.org; and Continuing meetings with stakeholders to get ongoing feedback from the solar community on their needs. The following sections provide a brief summary of the activities completed under each of the nine tasks specifically related to the RSC grant. Reports and other backup information are included in the appendices.
- Research Organization:
- City of San Antonio, San Antonio, TX (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Golden Field Office
- Contributing Organization:
- City of Houston Project, Houston, TX (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0005702
- OSTI ID:
- 1079450
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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