The Solar Tour consists of a series of Solar Open Houses - homeowners, small businesses, and nonprofits open their doors to the public on the designated day and tell the story of how and why they decided to go solar. ISEA has been organizing the Solar Tour for the state of Illinois for over a decade now! Though the Tour has historically been entirely in-person, we are now using a hybrid format where hosts can choose to submit a video tour, open their homes in-person, or both. 

Municipalities and green groups will act as liaisons between their communities and ISEA. This means:

1. Contacting those in your neighborhood who have solar and inviting them to be Solar Tour host sites 

1. Facilitating host site sign up by sharing the online form

2. Creating a page/blog post/calendar event/etc on your own website about the Solar Tour and which sites will be available in your community (ISEA will link to this on our website)

3. Publicizing the Solar Tour to the public - posting on local calendars, sharing on social media, sending out press releases to local papers, spreading the word wherever appropriate

ISEA also encourages municipalities and green groups to get creative! A great thing about having a bunch of solar homes and businesses in a single community is that it will be easy for your neighbors to go from site to site. This means the local liaison could organize, for example:

• A bike or walking tour that visits all or some of the host sites in your community

• A post-Solar Tour gathering at a park or restaurant

• A Google map with all host sites in the area pinned to make it easy for the public to go from place to place on their own