ASTI Newsletter | Fall 2015 Edition | by Thomas Yurysta
Many communities interested in going solar are intimidated by the procurement barriers, namely the high transaction costs and administrative time required to learn about solar, find an installer, and enter into a contract. More communities are turning to collaborative procurements to overcome this hurdle.
The idea with collaborative procurements is to have multiple communities in the same region aggregate their properties and go solar as a single procurement. This model has many benefits. Not only does it reduce installation cost 5-15% due to economies of scale, it also greatly reduces the administrative burden a community would face if going solar alone. This is because a steering committee will take on many of the key procurement steps including evaluating the solar potential of each property, creating and issuing the RFP, evaluating the responses, and selecting a vendor. Each participating community can choose how involved to be in the process.
You can learn about some collaborative procurement success stories here. The Solar Roadmap also delivered a webinar on this topic earlier this month; download the presentation and watch the recording here.
Solar Roadmap Goal M3, “Collaborative Procurement Programs for Municipal Facilities”, contains these examples and other resources to help you follow suit. Want to take the next step? Receive a free solar feasibility assessment for your community by contacting the Solar Roadmap team!
If you are not yet a Solar Roadmap community, sign up here.
