Help 1st Suburbs win $100,000.00 for a green jobs project and VOTE today!
As a part of the First Suburbs Development Council, the City of Euclid needs your vote in order to be awarded a $100,000 grant to help fund the Cleveland – First Suburbs Solar Special Improvement District Pilot Program.
Voting ends May 31st so please click on http://www.efficientgovnow.org/Vote/ & vote for: " J. Let the Sun Shine…The Cleveland – First Suburbs Solar Special Improvement District Pilot Program.”
In the first true collaborative project between Cleveland and sixteen member-municipalities of the First Suburbs Development Council, a Solar Special Improvement District (SID) will be created to finance, through special assessments, the purchase and installation of solar electricity generation projects on industrial and commercial properties within Cleveland and member municipalities of FSDC. In October 2009, Ohio House Bill 1 became effective enacting changes to Ohio law allowing municipalities to create such SIDs for “special energy improvement projects” in their communities. The shared SID between Cleveland and FSDC members will be the first in Ohio. This pilot program will create a replicable model which could be reproduced statewide. The Solar SID will provide real property owners the opportunity to finance solar photovoltaic and thermal roof-top or ground-mounted installations without out-of-pocket expenses. Cost savings to property owners who install the solar projects through the Solar SID will strengthen the economic competitiveness of those businesses and the communities in which they are located. Businesses participating in the pilot program of the Solar SID are also eligible for federal investment tax credits equal to 30% of eligible costs. Alternatively, for Solar SID projects placed in service in 2010, participants may elect a 30% grant equal to and in lieu of the investment tax credit. State grants up to $150,000 are also available to participating property owners. Introduced in January 2010, Ohio Senate Bill 223, would expand Ohio’s House Bill 1 legislation beyond solar to include wind, geothermal, biomass, gasification and other energy efficiency technologies. The pilot program would also position Cleveland and the FSDC member communities to immediately take advantage of the opportunity to finance these expanded green energy efficiency technologies.