Municipal Solar and Storage Resource Guide

Coordinating across departments can be challenging since efforts related to disaster preparedness/response, risk mitigation, and social resilience are not the primary responsibility or priority of any one department. Forming a coalition of partners early on can facilitate the process of installing a solar + storage project by building awareness, securing buy-in from the start. Mapping out stakeholders and forming the coalition brings together various municipal perspectives and expertise and offers project managers a point person for support in navigating any regulations or challenges that may arise throughout the planning, procurement, or installation of the system.  

When forming the coalition, project managers should be transparent about the process to manage workload expectations and timelines.

Tip: A coalition should include representatives from:

• Public Works
• Emergency Response and Fire Department
• Planning and Inspectional Services
• Finance
• Energy or Sustainability Committee
• Utility (as early as possible is strongly advised to better understand the interconnection process, constraints, and opportunities).  

Upon convening the coalition of stakeholders, the project manager should facilitate the development of shared solar + storage goals. Project managers should understand what their stakeholders’ top concerns and priorities are in this effort and ensure that goals are aligned. Examples of a municipal stakeholder’s goals include: increasing resilience at critical sites, managing peak demand and reducing energy costs, providing opportunities for solar for low-income members of the community, or establishing a microgrid for municipal buildings. 

• Enabling Regulations. Project leads should conduct a bylaw review to examine existing local ordinance that may inadvertently hinder the development and utilization of solar + storage. Some communities may have zoning restrictions, building codes, or aesthetic guidelines that could impede the installations of solar panels and/or energy storage units. By conducting a comprehensive review of these bylaws, municipalities can identify and amend any regulations that may be unnecessarily restrictive.  
• Hosting Capacity. In addition to the bylaws review, project leads should examine the host capacity within their borders. Hosting capacity refers to the ability of the electric distribution system to support additional distributed energy resources without triggering major infrastructure upgrades. Utilities like National Grid and Eversource provide valuable visual tools to map out hosting capacity*, offering a clear snapshot of areas that cap readily accommodate solar + storage installation. Utilize these maps as a first pass to help identify feasible sites and potentially save time and resources by avoiding areas with limited capacity. 

*Here are the hosting capacity maps from utilities: Eversource East and West DG Hosting Capacity Map; National Grid Massachusetts System Data Porta; Unitil Hosting Capacity Map

When selecting locations for solar + storage projects for municipalities, project leads should consider and map the following factors:  

• Critical Facilities. Identify and map key facilities such as hospitals, emergency response centers, fire stations, police stations, water treatment plants, communication towers, and other essential public services that require continuous power supply. These facilities serve an important role in ensuring the community's safety and well-being, and having backup power is critical during emergencies. 
• Community Hubs. Identify and map key “community hubs,” or public locations where communities tend to congregate, such as libraries, schools, recreation centers, and faith-based institutions, among others. These locations can provide residents with access to resources and services and/or serve as a meeting location in case of a power outage or other disruption.  
• Climate Vulnerable Areas. Identify which areas are vulnerable to threats such as storm surges, floods, hurricanes, or other natural disasters. Your municipality’s Hazard Mitigation Plan is a good place to start to review the identified hazards and risk mitigation strategies and align efforts with existing initiatives. State tools, such as resilientma.org and the Guides for Equitable and Actionable Resilience (GEAR), can help assess current and projected climate threats in your area. Revisit your goals and discuss with your coalition of stakeholders whether prioritizing these locations for site selection aligns with the resilience goals (i.e., strategically locating projects in areas of greater resilience need) or whether de-prioritization is more appropriate (i.e., avoiding installation in hazard-prone areas). If the former, take proper measures to safeguard equipment (e.g., elevate equipment in flood prone areas).  

Overlaying critical facilities and community hubs over climate vulnerable areas and hosting capacity allows project managers to locate sites that can benefit most from backup power. By aggregating and mapping these factors, project leads can better understand the municipality’s specific needs and vulnerabilities, assess the level of risk, and prioritize locations based on criticality.  

From the list developed in Step 4, screen the potential locations by their appropriateness for backup power. For instance, remove any sites that do not require energy immediately after a disruption (e.g., Town office building), and instead prioritize locations that offer an immediate and critical function (e.g., medical services, police/fire station, aid-distribution center, etc.).  

Consider the solar potential of the sites, particularly those with existing solar systems, and screen out any sites with poor solar access (i.e., minimal solar exposure, limited space, unsuitable rooftop or parking lot space).   

A technical consultant or academic partner is typically engaged in the initial planning and feasibility stage of a solar + storage project. Their expertise in assessing factors such as demand, sizing, hosting capacity, and solar irradiance is crucial for site selection. Involving a consultant early on can optimize the site selection process, reducing risks and laying a foundation for successful project development. 

Selecting a location will differ based on whether the municipality is procuring a new solar system with storage vs adding storage to an existing system. The table below outlines additional items to consider depending on the project type:  

From the narrowed down list in Step 5, reengage your stakeholder coalition to further prioritize the sites technical feasibility and practicality. Consider sites that are scheduled for an upgrade or improvement in the next 5 years to prioritize storage during the retrofit.  

 Apply an equity/environmental justice lens to the condensed list:

• Are any of these located in neighborhoods that have been disproportionately harmed by environmental injustices?  
• Are any of these locations near or accessible by traditionally underserved or disproportionately vulnerable communities?  
• Are/Can any of these locations be used as a gathering site?  
• Are the sites used for emergency shelters physically accessible and ADA compliant?  

Prioritize the locations that answered yes to one or more of the questions above. By thoughtfully considering equity, municipalities can reduce existing inequities and ensure project benefits are distributed fairly, while improving local access to clean energy. Finally, review the shortlist with key stakeholders and select several priority locations to investigate in the next step.  

Tip: Partnering with community-based organizations (CBOs), nonprofits, and local institutions can help align the project with the needs and values of the community, resulting in better outcomes and greater community support. By doing so, municipalities can ensure that solar + storage projects benefit all communities, supporting a more just clean energy transition. 

Conduct an on-site visit to the potential sites and bring along the facilities manager and fire department to evaluate the suitability of each site. The on-site visits should assess: 

• Existing energy use. Review energy consumption data to identify the temporal or seasonal changes of the building's energy use to better understand how the proposed generation could meet critical needs after an event. This can be done generally by looking at utility bills or energy audits. One may consider installing load tracking equipment in the design phase to track more granular data such as an hourly load profiles. If planning to use the energy storage system for an emergency shelter or resilience hub, it is vital to understand the energy demand before, during, and after a disruption.  
• Solar potential. For sites with an existing solar system, assess the interconnecting storage. Start evaluating the interconnection feasibility by reviewing utilities’ hosting capacity maps online and talking directly with utility. For sites without existing solar systems, assess the solar potential and roof or parking lot capacity for a solar array.  
• Storage potential. Batteries can be located either indoors or outdoors, so long as there is an enclosed, well-ventilated space according to the Code. Consider potential setback requirements and potential risk mitigation measures, such as elevating the battery or installing flood barriers, to prevent damage. Calculate how much floor space is available for battery installation to estimate the potential battery size and capacity. Use PVWatts Calculator developed by NREL to estimate the energy production of PV energy system. 

Finally, after selecting a pilot site, the project lead should reconnect with the utility and the coalition of stakeholders, including the fire department, to ensure shared cooperation and support, while aligning the project plans with the municipality’s Capital Improvement Plan.  

Tips from MassCEC: 
In an interview, MassCEC commented that municipalities tend to conduct unnecessarily expensive and time-consuming feasibility studies when exploring locations for solar + storage. Feasibility studies are often complex leading to challenges in the bidding process. Instead, municipalities should be more flexible in bid specifications, and require less detailed financial information, which are often unhelpful due to the dynamic nature of market pricing compared to longer, public sector timelines. 

Explore the various financing opportunities for implementing the project, including grants, green bonds, loans, public-private partnerships, or communities shared models (see Funding Opportunities). Analyzing incentives, tax credits, and available federal and state support can help craft a financial strategy that aligns with the budget and the project’s long-term sustainability goals.  

After all that is done, project managers can issue an RFP to solicit bids from potential contractors and suppliers. Set clear specifications, project goals, timelines and evaluation criteria in the RFP.  

For examples of local solar + storage projects across the region, see Local Case Studies & Reflections.  

Solar + Storage Procurement Resources

• Energy Storage Procurement Guidance Documents for Municipalities. Specific guidance to develop RFPs can be found here.
• Procurement Best Practices and Lessons Learned. The NC Clean Energy Technology Center has a recorded webinar available that shares procurement best practices and lessons learned, here.