Thanks to the Non-Toxic Times, the newsletter of Seventh Generation sustainable household products, we would like to alert readers to the Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy, or DSIRE. It offers some creative answers—in terms of a host of available incentives—to concerns about the viability of alternative energies, from individual buildings to community programs.

The site, which is managed by the North Carolina Solar Center for the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. It provides a comprehensive look at—plus links to—incentives on the local and state levels, as well as those offered by utility companies, for private efforts to convert to solar, wind, or water power. Included are financial incentives, from tax credits to grants to loans. The site also offers an easy-to-follow chart of awareness programs, including demonstrations, education programs, green pricing and green power programs, again delineated by local, state, and utility programs. They offer interesting, often unique, green ideas, such as Portland General Electric's partnership with For the Sake of the Salmon, a salmon conservation group, to create the Salmon-Friendly Power program. This green pricing tariff program allows customers to voluntarily pay a premium for renewable energy generated from salmon-friendly energy sources, including wind, solar, geothermal, and low-impact hydro power.

The site also offers a synopsis of the IREC's "Schools Going Solar" program, a state-by-state listing of school that have adopted technologies and techniques for harnessing power from the sun. Of particular interest might be Colorado's statewide "Solar for Schools" program. Also useful to architects, the site contains pertinent rules and regs for states and localities, including solar access laws and energy-related design and construction laws.

Copyright 2001 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.