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What is the Minnesota Solar Challenge? <br />The Minnesota Solar Challenge provides support for communities across Minnesota that maf be interested <br />in capturing the beneyfft of their local solar energf resource.Minnesota Solar Challenge partners will work <br />with communities across Minnesota until Februar y 2013 to implement local government best practices in <br />permitting and zoning. The project aims to create an economically self-sustaining solar energy industr y and <br />opportunities for homeowners and businesses to more efectively use their solar energy resource. <br />Non-hardware costs such as permitting, installation, design, and <br />maintenance currently account for up to 40 percent of the total <br />cost of installed rooftop solar photovoltaic systems in the United <br />States. Lowering these costs is an important part of growing the <br />solar energy industr y so that it can create new jobs for American <br />workers, improve U.S. energy security, and provide clean, <br />renewable energy for American families and businesses. <br />What are “best practices”? <br />Local governments have a number of opportunities for <br />advancing solar energf resources and promoting the <br />development of a solar energf industrf. Best practices for local <br />governments include standardizing permitting processes for <br />addressing solar technologies, updating land use policies and <br />zoning codes, and increasing access to ffffinancing. Incorporating <br />such best practices into local government operations can enable <br />property owners to capture their solar resource consistent with <br />community land use, aesthetic, and safety standards. <br />What assistance is being offered? <br />The Minnesota Solar Challenge is oiering free technical assistance to communities who want to investigate <br />adopting local government best practices for enabling solar energf development. Best practices focus on: <br />n Removing barriers in local permitting processes (building and electric) <br />n Understanding and adopting reasonable permit fees charged to solar installations <br />n Ensuring that land use regulation (including comprehensive plan language and zoning) <br />treats solar energy installations fairly and consistently with other similar land uses <br />Solar means business for four local government <br />See other side <br />for details on <br />assistance.