Conference Aims to Help Communities Expand Support for Solar

Grow Solar Wisconsin, a statewide initiative to reduce the cost of solar.

MADISON, WI - Grow Solar Wisconsin, a statewide initiative to reduce the cost of solar, will be hosting a conference to share solar resources with communities from around the Midwest.The conference will be held on October 11, 2012 at Monona Terrace in Madison and will provide attendees with resources for building and implementing a strategic solar plan for their community. The mission of the conference is to overcome barriers to the widespread adoption of solar energy technologies and to be a resource to assist local governments and stakeholders in designing and implementing a strategic local solar plan. The audience - consisting of municipalities, state employees, solar industry professionals, university employees, non-profits, utilities,developers, installers, legal and policy stakeholders and elected officials - will take home information about permitting, net metering, third party ownership, interconnection standards, case studies & models for success, and financing for solar installations. Conference Highlights include: • Keynote speakers Paula Mints, Director of Energy at Navigant Consulting and Sarah L. White, Ph.D., Senior Associate, at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy . Paula is a Director in the Energy practice, and widely recognized as an industry expert on photovoltaic (PV) technologies and markets. She is a regular contributor for Renewable Energy World and is a contributing columnist for Renewable Energy Focus. Sarah White is a Senior Associate at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy. Her work at the Center focuses on sustainable workforce strategies, both local and national, including green career pathways in the clean energy economy. • A Solar 3.0 training will occur in conjunction with the conference and is the only Solar 3.0 training to take place in the Midwest. Solar 3.0 is a national outreach initiative that promotes process innovation in American cities through the standardization of local land use, zoning code ordinances, permitting processes and interconnection rules for distributed solar PV. Solar 3.0 partners include: Solar Tech, Underwriters Laboratory, Rocky Mountain Institute, the International Association of Electrical Inspectors (IAEI), the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA), ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA and many others. • The Conference will also feature an exhibit hall and break out sessions covering solar financing, third party ownership, interconnection and net metering, successful case studies and the solar job market. The early bird price of $99 is good through August 31st.For more information and to register: www.growsolar.org Funded by the Department of Energy SunShot Initiative, Grow Solar Wisconsin is part of a collaborative national initiative to make solar cost competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade. The Grow Solar Wisconsin team is made up of the non-profits Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) and RENEW Wisconsin, the City of Madison-MadiSUN program, the City of Milwaukee-Milwaukee Shines program, the City of Marshfield, Sustainable Resource Group and Madison Solar Consulting To learn more, please visit www.growsolar.org

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