Last month, the Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC) announced that the Midwest Renewable Energy Association’s (MREA) 2021 Grow Solar Linn + Johnson Counties program received the ISAC Excellence in Action Award. The Excellence in Action Award Program is a competitive awards program that seeks to identify and recognize innovative county government employees, programs, and projects. The awards were presented during a ceremony at the ISAC Annual Conference in Des Moines on August 24, 2022 (pictured above).
Grow Solar Linn + Johnson Counties is part of MREA’s Grow Solar group buy initiative, a program that makes it faster, easier, and more affordable for homes and businesses across the Midwest to go solar by coupling public solar education with the power of bulk purchasing.
In 2021, Grow Solar Linn + Johnson Counties engaged 450 urban and rural residents in Solar Power Hour information sessions and helped 64 of those property owners go solar, totaling 557 kW. The project shows the power of cross-community coordination and collaboration and helped both counties make clean energy more accessible for their residents.
The MREA wishes to extend its congratulations to the entire 2021 Grow Solar Linn + Johnson Counties team for being selected as a recipient of the 2022 ISAC Excellence in Action Award. The program’s essential partners were: the City of Cedar Rapids, the City of Iowa City, Green Iowa AmeriCorps–Cedar Rapids/Matthew 25, Green Iowa AmeriCorps–Iowa City, Johnson Clean Energy District, Johnson County Conservation, Johnson County Planning, Development and Sustainability, Linn Clean Energy District, Linn County Public Health, and The Nature Conservancy in Iowa. Eagle Point Solar served as the installer for this project.
The MREA is continuing its Grow Solar efforts in Iowa, offering Grow Solar Polk County to local property owners. To learn more visit www.polk.growsolar.org