Last week, Massachusetts introduced the Solarize Massachusetts pilot program, aimed at speeding the adoption of solar for homeowners and small business owners. The pilot will work to spread the word about solar through marketing and education and leverage group purchasing in an attempt to speed adoption.

“We’re deploying the Solarize Massachusetts model in four communities,” said Kate Plourd, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (CEC). “We have an RFP [i.e., request for proposal] out to find integrators for each of the communities to offer a group model for them.”.

The CEC is deploying Solarize Massachusetts in the randomly selected Green Communities of Harvard, Hatfield, Scituate and Winchester. The pilot introduces a new business model, under which residents in the towns will employ collaborative or bulk purchasing to reduce the cost of solar from the solar installers that win the RFPs.

Under the program, installation costs are based on a tiered structure that reduces the cost of solar when more people decide to install solar in the community, according to the CEC.

The CEC will help educate the communities about solar and provide them with marketing materials, according to Plourd.

The state agency will create pamphlets, yard signs stickers and more for the towns.

“We’re developing toolkits for these towns [aimed] at different sizes and demographics,” she said.

The Solarize Massachusetts program is based on the Solarize Portland program and the recent Department of Energy publication: “The Solarize Guidebook: A community guide to collective purchasing of residential PV systems,” Plourd said.

The guidebook, published in January 2011, was based largely on Solarize Portland’s successes in helping more than 600 residents install solar in just two years, and was created to help other states and communities develop collective purchasing programs for an attempt to help lower the costs of solar for homeowners and small businesses.

If the Solarize Massachusetts pilot works in these communities, CEC will likely expand the program.

“Ideally, if this model is successful then installers could use it in any community or town in the state,” Plourd said.

Image courtesy of Energy Trust of Oregon, which couldn’t be farther from Massachusetts if it tried. Who cares? It’s pretty.