Congratulations to the Solarize Massachusetts Pilot Project. As the Press reported online this week, Renewable Energy World, a leading online and print industry publication, selected the project as one of three finalists in the policy category for Innovation of the Year. The winner will be announced in February.

Renewable Energy World is also holding a Readers' Choice award contest, and we recommend that you show your support for the Solarize Mass project by voting online before voting closes today, Friday, Jan. 20. To do so, visit www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/awards/2012/vote.

As Renewable Energy World rightly recognized, the Solarize Mass project is truly innovative. Launched by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center in four towns last April, it helps reduce the cost of installing photovoltaic solar energy systems through bulk purchasing, along with state grants and federal tax credits. The idea, and it's a good one, is that the intimidating up-front cost of solar energy installation can be mitigated if communities work together. And one of the most encouraging things about the project is how Harvard took the lead; participation here was greater than the other three towns by a wide margin, not that it was a contest.

If shady Harvard can generate enough interest for 402 kilowatts of solar energy (and a "solar garden" spin-off project is in the works, too), clearly the Clean Energy Center is on to something. Take a minute today to vote for Solarize Mass, and while you're there, check out the other excellent projects on the ballot. Many of them, like Solarize Mass, represent the sort of outside-the-box thinking and community spirit necessary to jump start progress toward the clean and renewable future our country and our planet so badly need to reach.