Best Practices for Collaborative Solar Purchasing

The document presents a structured 12-step framework for collaborative solar procurement, moving from early regional recruiting and site assessment through to procurement, installation, and long-term operation. The process emphasizes the importance of shared understanding among participants, competitive bidding to ensure best-value vendor selection, and the documentation of energy production and savings over a 25-year horizon.

• The collaborative solar purchasing process consists of 12 sequential steps: early regional recruiting, initial participant questionnaire, solar project workshop, consolidated analysis of sites, internal decision maker consultation, design of procurement process and documents, request for proposals, proposal evaluation, negotiations and awards, installation project management, commissioning and operations, and celebration of success.
• A critical component of the procurement phase is the use of a competitive process to select winning bidders for bundles to ensure the selection of a best-value vendor.
• The ultimate goal of the process is the installation of solar PV systems that meet safety standards and provide planned energy production and savings for 25 years or more.

APA

World Resources Institute (2011). Best Practices for Collaborative Solar Purchasing. http://pdf.wri.org/best_practices_collaborative_solar_purchasing.pdf

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Best Practices for Collaborative Solar Purchasing. 2011. http://pdf.wri.org/best_practices_collaborative_solar_purchasing.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Best Practices for Collaborative Solar Purchasing |date=April 2011 |url=http://pdf.wri.org/best_practices_collaborative_solar_purchasing.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2011best, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Best Practices for Collaborative Solar Purchasing}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2011}, month = apr, url = {http://pdf.wri.org/best_practices_collaborative_solar_purchasing.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }