City Achieves SolSmart Bronze Designation

The City of Highland Park recently received Bronze designation from SolSmart, a national program that recognizes cities that that foster solar energy usage and remove obstacles to solar development at the local level. Highland Park made changes to our permitting, inspection, planning and zoning processes that will help solar companies reduce the cost of installations and pass those savings on to consumers. To make it easier to navigate the process, the City has posted a solar permitting checklist on its website.

Metropolitan Mayor’s Caucus worked with Highland Park and 14 other Chicago-area municipalities and counties to achieve SolSmart Designation. There are now 18 SolSmart designated municipalities in Illinois, the highest number of any state in the country. Our participation in this program shows that we are open for solar business.  SolSmart is an initiative led by The Solar Foundation and the International City/County Management Association and funded by the US Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office.

Community Solar

If you are interested in using solar energy to meet your electricity needs but aren’t able to install solar panels at your home, you can subscribe to community solar. A group of Wilmette residents is working to put together a community solar project that will be open to people in our area. To learn more, click here. There will be an informational meeting on Tuesday, February 20 from 7 – 8:30 pm at the Wilmette Public Library. The meeting is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 pm.

Environmental Town Hall meeting

Please join me on November 29 for this Environmental Town Hall meeting in Highland Park. Experts from Illinois Environmental Council, Union of Concerned Scientists, Moms Clean Air Force, Sierra Club and Illinois Solar Energy Association will address climate change, clean energy, flooding and air pollution, along with suggestions on what you can do.