Solar America Board of Codes and Standards

The Solar America Board of Codes and Standards (SolarABCs) work within the Solar America Initiative will improve responsiveness, effectiveness, and accessibility of codes and standards to U.S. solar stakeholders at all levels. In addition, this work emphasizes planning to support the new technologies of the Solar America Initiative research and development award winners.

Project Description:

Develop a solar codes and standards board and working groups to address code development and outreach activities in areas of critical importance to solar market penetration, such as building electrical codes, product safety, interconnection procedures, and international standards coordination.

FOA#:

DE-PS36-07GO97005

DOE Funding (in USD):

$1.2 M

Goals:

Identify current issues, establish a dialogue among key stakeholders, and catalyze appropriate activities to support the development of codes and standards that facilitate the installation of high quality, safe photovoltaic systems. Conduct targeted studies to provide insight into important issues and provide feedback to SolarABCs for strategic planning.

Awardees:

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selected New Mexico State University to lead an effort to develop SolarABCs. In addition to New Mexico State University, the Board includes:

Underwriters Laboratories
BEW
Arizona State University
PowerMark
Interstate Renewable Energy Council
Florida Solar Energy Center
North Carolina State University
Brooks Engineering
Sunset Technologies
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Sandia National Laboratories.

Publications:

Overview of the Solar America Cities Awards (Contains information about the solar codes and standards work near the end) (PDF 1.3 MB) Download Adobe Reader.
Codes and Standards Workshop Presentations from the 2^nd IRDER Conference Workshop held December 4, 2006, in Napa, California (PDF 3.9 MB)