With at least $7 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy and a 30 percent tax break for solar and wind energy investments in the Senate stimulus package that passed late yesterday afternoon, it appears that more than a few legislators are hopeful in the ability of alternative energy to help give the economy the jolt it needs. Still, as Eric’s pointed out, more questions than answers are still in the air with regards to the final state of the bill, and consequently how the money will be allocated. While it might be a bit early for us to speculate, wouldn’t it be nice to look at some of the solar-related possibilities?

The US Conference of Mayors has released its “Main Street Economic Recovery Report,” in which various City Halls across the country have drawn up plans and budgets for plans they would like to see funded. While that’s all well and good, independent, volunteer-run website Stimulus Watch has done one better—it’s compiled them and opened the projects up to voting, along with space for Wiki-style data entry, for those with local knowledge. Democracy at work! Granted, it could be a small group of constituents voting, so, as with any internet-based voting platform, the numbers aren’t infallible indicators of a project’s viability or usefulness. (Although the -458 votes for a proposal to spend $15 million to give solar heaters to rural Puerto Rican families do seem to be rather damning.) Stimulus Watch isn’t an Encyclopaedia Britannica of potential uses for federal money—the variation in detail and foresight of the project proposals depends almost entirely on the information supplied by the US Conference of Mayors. We don’t know whether that $1 million for roads will go to fund five jobs for a year or five jobs for five years. Nevertheless, I’m confident that the flow of information won’t ebb, and besides, when push comes to shove, details will be verified, inquiries will be made and the wheat will be separated from the chaff. Or so I hope.

So, without much further ado, here are some examples of the solar energy projects listed:

$2,150,000 for a solar-powered hybrid/electric vehicle charge station in Albuquerque, NM (11 jobs)

$2,160,000,000 to shift 10 percent of Los Angeles’ energy use to solar by 2020 (31243 jobs) Given the -529 vote count and the disgruntled nature of the comments, this is one project that doesn’t seem too likely.

$10 million for the installation of a 112 kW solar energy system in the municipal operations service center of Avondale, AZ (50 jobs)

$975,000 as funding to assist small business owners with the installation costs of solar panels in Glendora, CA (45 jobs)

$29,400,000 to install 4 MW’s worth of solar panels on public buildings in Las Vegas, NV (30 jobs)

$7,500,000 for a pilot installation of solar thermal renewable energy systems (including “feasibility analysis of financing strategy and billing infrastructure system to enable large-scale implementation”) in 1000 homes across Miami-Dade, FL (25 jobs)

$4 million for a residential solar revolving loan fund in Philadelphia, PA (100 jobs)

And the list goes on (for three pages)! Given the nature of solar photovoltaic installations, many of the projects—but not all—are expensive. The proposals range in modesty, feasibility and usefulness, and most are local in nature, subjecting their popularity to the muscle of collective action. For more detailed information about any particular venture, call your mayor’s office—while I can’t guarantee that you’ll get answers, at least you’ll be letting them know that somebody’s paying attention.