The Long Island Power Authority, Long Island Regional Planning Council, Suffolk County Planning Commission and Nassau County Planning Commission launched the Long Island Unified Solar Code Initiative, a collaborative effort to promote clean energy technology.

LIPA's Kevn Law says the lack of a uniform code creates confusion, delays and extra costs.Kevin S. Law, the president and CEO of LIPA, described the goals of the collaborative as bringing uniformity to regulations for deploying solar power on Long Island, reducing the region's dependence on fossil fuels and creating new jobs in the clean-energy sector.

The collaborative effort grew out of work by the Suffolk County Planning Commission's Energy and Environment Task Force to streamline the solar panel permitting process. Currently each town has its own regulations, making it a challenge for citizens or businesses who wish to install photovoltaic systems.

The collaborative hopes to create new codes for installing solar panels similar to the Energy Star building codes recently adopted in most Long Island towns. Law also hopes that the success of the solar power collaborative will lead to uniformity in wind turbine installation regulations next year.