Shine a light on solar energy in your county

If you are ready to meet this challenge, it might be worth a cool million or three to your county: Reduce the permit-to-plug-in-times for installing solar energy systems towards seven days for small photovoltaic (PV) systems or seven weeks for large PV systems.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative, the SunShot Prize: Race to 7-Day Solar aims to encourage local governments, communities, solar companies and electric utilities to collaborate towards improving the "going solar" experience from permit to plug-in for all Americans.

This competition offers a total of $10 million in cash awards to the best teams that bring certainty to the process and reduce the permit-to-plug-in time from current durations. SunShot will provide seed funding to help support up to 20 teams during a set 18-month performance period that begins in September 2015.

SunShot will run two contests for 18 months and award two cash grand prizes in each contest by the end based on performance. In each contest, the first-place grand prize is $3 million and the second-place grand prize is $1 million.

Another set of cash prizes totaling $2 million will be split among up to 20 entrants who seek in-progress prize rewards while taking steps towards achieving the goals of the small or large system contests throughout this 18-month period.

The official rules are online at: go.usa.gov/3rqkR . Deadline for the Entrance App lication is July 22. The performance period is September 2015 March 2017. Grand prize announcement: Summer 2017.