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Tempe, Ariz.—This week, Tempe Mayor Corey Woods signed a proclamation making the city the latest to join the 2021 Arizona Solar Challenge.   

The Arizona Solar Challenge is a community-based solar campaign led by the nonprofit SmartPower and designed to help residents go solar in order to help Arizona’s communities become sustainability leaders.    

The Arizona Solar Challenge makes it easy for residents to go solar by offering educational outreach opportunities about the benefits of going solar. By signing up on the www.tempesolarchallenge.wee.green or www.azsolarchallenge.wee.green Arizona homeowners will be able to quickly find out if their home is good for solar and be connected to a vetted and pre-screened local installer to learn more.

Tempe Joins Solar Challenge 
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Tempe makes waves as a technology and business magnet, an inclusive, caring community and a hub for recreation and adventure. Sustainable Tempe is a robust and growing collection of programs that aim to innovate for the benefit of all. These services and initiatives include water and energy conservation, recycling, composting, alternative transportation, sustainable business practices and environmental stewardship. In 2019, the City of Tempe has adopted their Climate Action Plan that outlines strategies for reducing municipal and community carbon emissions by targeting the largest and most cost-effective solutions in conjunction with other Tempe goals and priorities. The CAP strives to reduce GHG emissions and create resilience through the three content areas of Transportation, Energy/Energy Efficiency, and Extreme heat through 12 actions. Several of those actions include solar and battery storage investments. 

“Solar energy and battery backup for storage are strategies the City of Tempe is taking with our municipal operations and we are thrilled to be partnering with Arizona Solar Challenge to help educate residents on all the benefits of these technologies not only for individuals’ households, but the economy and environment,” said Mayor Woods. 
 
The Arizona Solar Challenge uses a simple, tested and proven model to overcome historic barriers to residential solar adoption. This approach includes working with municipalities, utilities, community groups and ‘solar ambassadors’ to educate residents on the benefits of going solar.  At its core, The Arizona Solar Challenge is a peer-to-peer, friend-to-friend and neighbor-to-neighbor outreach campaign.

The Arizona Solar Challenge is a partnership that also includes the online platform WeeGreen, the Leon Lowenstein Foundation, SunUp America, Dividend Finance, the Reveille Foundation and an ever growing list of cities, towns, organizations and companies across Arizona. The Arizona Solar Challenge seeks to ensure that 2,000 homes across the state go solar over the next two years.

In 2010, SmartPower launched and managed the first Arizona Solar Challenge, an award-winning effort that ultimately saw 15 Arizona cities and towns achieve a goal of getting 10% of their residents to buy solar.  The effort made Arizona a true solar leader, and Tempe’s announcement today, continues that trend.
“Solar power presents an opportunity for jobs and constant, affordable energy for all,” said SmartPower President Brian F. Keane.  “The proclamation made by Mayor Woods illustrates that Tempe continues to be a leader in solar and sustainability.” 

Find out more about the Arizona Solar Challenge at https://www.azsolarchallenge.wee.green

About SmartPower:
SmartPower was created in 2002 by some of the nation’s largest private foundations that believe that today’s energy solutions require the same consumer marketing approaches as traditional brands. Today, SmartPower works with federal, state and local agencies as well as utilities and private companies on clean energy campaigns.  Over the past decade SmartPower has run and managed hundreds of “Solarize” Campaigns from coast to coast. 
 
About The Reveille Foundation:
 
The Reveille Foundation supports under-served populations with holistic, case management that create individual plans for success and brings the community of resources together to execute these plans. The primary audiences are transitioning military, veterans and families, the formerly incarcerated and families and Native Americans 
 
About the Arizona Solar Challenge:
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First launched in 2010, The Arizona Solar Challenge is an award-winning, peer-to-peer outreach campaign that encourages residents to go solar as a way of helping their community become a sustainability leader.

​Providence, R.I., – Representatives from the Office of Energy Resources (OER), the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation and the non-profit organization SmartPower joined with municipal leaders today to announce the three communities that will participate in the Fall 2017 Solarize Rhode Island program.

​“Riding on the heels of the tremendous success of Solarize’s spring round, we are excited to have the towns of Barrington, Bristol and South Kingstown join us for the new season,” said Carol Grant, Commissioner, Office of Energy Resources. “This will be the second round of participation for all three towns, which is a testament to the effectiveness of this program and shows that town leaders and residents are enthusiastic about doing their part to build a clean energy future in RI.”

​Boston – Brian F. Keane, President of the nonprofit clean energy organization, SmartPower, was awarded the $50,000 Frank Hatch “Sparkplug” Award for Enlightened Public Service by The John Merck Fund today. The award is granted annually to an outstanding leader whose work embodies extraordinary creativity, dedication, and foresight.

​“Brian’s vision, energy, and passion exemplify the purpose of the Sparkplug Award,” said Serena H. Whitridge, Chair of The John Merck Fund board, in presenting the award. “SmartPower’s unrivaled success in helping to mainstream clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency to the American people has changed the consumer and environmental landscape in ways once thought simply unimaginable.”

Washington, DC – Brian F. Keane, the President of SmartPower (www.smartPower.org), the nation’s leading non-profit marketing firm dedicated to promoting clean energy and energy efficiency has been named the 2016 CEO of the Year by Corporate LiveWire.

Each year Corporate LiveWire publishes and celebrates the innovation and excellence of those firms, teams and individuals who have shown continued excellence, and innovation amid ongoing global economic uncertainty.

You can download the full Press Release HERE – or read it on one of the following news outlets:

• Yahoo! Finance
• MarketWatch
• Boston Business Journal
• Arizona Central (Part of the USA Today Network)

WASHINGTON – PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will recognize National Grid and SmartPower for their innovative work on clean air and climate with the 2016 Clean Air Excellence Award. The Clean Air Excellence Awards are given to state, local, tribal, and private sector programs that educate the public in improving air quality or reducing harmful air pollutants or greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

This year the EPA Announced 7 Clean Air Excellence Awards in six categories (1) Education and Outreach; (2) Clean Air Technology; (3) Community Action; (4) Regulatory and Policy Innovation; (5) Transportation and Energy Innovation; (6) The Thomas W. Zosel Individual Award.

​National Grid and SmartPower have been awarded in the Education and Outreach category for The Rhode Island Energy Challenge: Find Your Four! Campaign. The grassroots energy efficiency campaign encouraged customers across Rhode Island to ‘find four’ simple energy reductions they can undertake in their homes or businesses. Consumer knowledge on the need to reduce energy consumption and associating greenhouse gas emissions saw a demonstrated increase, with 90 percent of participating homeowners taking at least one energy reduction effort, and 75 percent of participating homeowners indicating improved understanding of their energy use.

​Washington, DC – SmartPower, the nation’s leading non-profit marketing firm dedicated to promoting clean energy and energy efficiency today announced a major milestone in its “Solarize” group-purchasing program. In just 3 years – and with investments of less than $3.5 million — the SmartPower Solarize campaigns have resulted in over $100 million of residential solar energy. “This is a major milestone for SmartPower and our Solarize campaigns,” said Brian F. Keane, President of SmartPower. “With investments of less than $3.5 million, we have created over $100 million worth of solar energy throughout Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. It’s a major achievement for the solar industry, the environment and our economy.” SmartPower’s announcement comes amid recent high profile losses among some of the industry’s largest solar companies, the most recent being SunEdison’s stunning demise. Once the darling of the solar industry, SunEdison today teeters on bankruptcy. “We know this is an emerging market,” said SmartPower’s Keane. “What we’re seeing today is similar to the tech boom of the 1990’s. Some companies will thrive, and others will not. But the lesson in our announcement today is that in this emerging marketplace, our Solarize group-buy model, backed by key funders who support clean, renewable energy and utilizing pre-selected solar installers, makes residential and small commercial solar a sound investment that can scale up quickly with minimal risk.” Key features of the Solarize model include support by local communities, pre-selected solar installers with competitive pricing, attractive financing options including a zero-dollar down option, and a 16-20 week campaign with a clear end date. This SmartPower formula has resulted in over 20,000 homeowners requesting solar site visits to see if their homes are good for solar. In 2012 with a grant from The John Merck Fund and an investment from The Connecticut Green Bank, SmartPower launched “The New England Solar Challenge”, a residential solar campaign that morphed into Solarize Connecticut and various “Solarize” campaigns throughout New England. In Connecticut alone, over 18MW of residential solar were installed in three years bringing solar to over 2,000 Connecticut residents. “Added together, these households are greater than any utility-scale solar array in New England,” continued Keane. “And we did it in less time than any utility could.” The numbers at a glance: In three years-