The National Civic League is proud to announce our partnership with ICMA (the International City/County Management Association) to help establish a national recognition program to energize local solar marketplaces. The SPARC program – Solar Powering America by Recognizing Communities – will award local governments with a “stamp of approval” for their efforts in building stronger solar environments around the country, encouraging others to follow suit and ultimately helping to make it faster, cheaper, and easier for communities across the country to go solar.
SPARC is a three-year cooperative effort between ICMA and its partners, and the U.S. Department of Energy. SPARC will qualify at least 300 leading communities that seek to achieve designation and engage hundreds more through robust competitions and awards initiatives, It is part of the larger SunShot Initiative which seeks to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of this decade.
NCL is eager to join with ICMA and others in this effort and to bring our unique skill set to this work. The project will draw upon NCL’s expertise in developing recognition programs, celebrating local innovation and excellence and engaging and connecting communities to one another. Building on NCL’s proven track record with AAC – we are part of a team that will develop a recognition program to identify and celebrate communities that meet key solar milestones. These lessons, policies, and programs will be shared with other communities to help lower barriers to installation, access and reduce costs.
