Yesterday at the SunShot Grand Challenge Summit and Technology Forum, held in Denver, Colorado, the Department of Energy's Secretary Chu announced another innovative prize program that many local governments may want to consider exploring.  

The first ever SunShot Prize offers $10 million in total prize money to teams able to dramatically reduce the price of rooftop solar energy. This national effort challenges solar businesses across the nation to claim title to the SunShot Prize for America’s Most Affordable Rooftop Solar. The SunShot Prize encourages novel public-private partnerships, original business models, and innovative approaches to installing clean, renewable solar energy. The sustainable business strategies developed by participants will provide transferrable lessons that can be applied nationwide to hasten America’s transition to affordable clean energy in a post-subsidy market.

This new prize program, like other SunShot initiatives is designed to drive down the cost of solar installations through hard and soft cost innovations in order to make sustainable solar energy cost competitive with more traditional sources.  For this new prize program, a total of $10 million will be available to the first three teams that can install 5,000, 1 to 15 kilowatt rooftop solar systems at an average price of $2 per watt, importantly before subsidies.  Over the next several months are several deadlines, but especially August 1, 2012 when the final prize rules are expected to be announced.  The first team to successfully meet all requirements and reach the 5,000 installation target is eligible for a $7 million first prize award.  The second and third teams to reach the milestone will receive $2 million and $1 million cash prizes.

To stay abreast of this contest and other financial opportunities stay tuned to the Knowledge Network topic page on solar energy.  You can also learn more by following ICMA's SunShot Solar Outreach Partnership Twitter feeds and Facebook page, which are part of ICMA's solar outreach work with the Department of Energy to provide resources for local governments.