Center of Excellence

This is the site's landing page. The left column contains a quick introduction on Value of Solar and a map of the US showing current proceedings and studies. The right column contains a dynamic list of the five most recently posted resources in the library. To see older resources, use the browse or search links at the top.

This is the page you're on now which contains site instructions and frequently asked questions (FAQ).

This page contains more detailed information about the Value of Solar Center of Excellence (VOSCOE), details for contacting us, and instructions for submitting resources to be included in the library.

This page allows you to browse through all resources in the library. The first section allows you to browse through resources grouped by field. Click on Author, for example, to see a list of all authors with resources on the site along with the number of resources for each (in parentheses after their name). You can then click an author display all resources on the site written by them. This works similarly for the other fields: adoption year, topic, type, and state.

When you first navigate to this page you’ll also see the “All Available Resources” section. This is a list of all resources in chronological order by the date they were posted (newest resources first). Note that this will not necessarily correspond to the order of their publication or adoption. Resources will be displayed in groups of 100. Use the buttons at the bottom right to cycle through subsequent groups of 100. Alternatively, you can use the search feature of the site (click on the link at the top) to display a narrower set of results.

There are two buttons at the upper right portion of this section. Use them to toggle between the “Detailed View” and “Grid View” setting. The view you see by default is detailed view.

With the grid view you can sort the list by specific criteria: click on the arrow to the left of the column headings to sort in ascending or descending order. Click the arrow again to toggle between them.

You can also enter text just under the column headings in the grid view to filter the list for entries that contain specific text. Note that this view will not allow you to filter by the full text of the resource such as the contents of the PDF file, only the descriptive fields. Use the quick search or advanced search when this is required.

This page allows you to conduct searches by using multiple fields. All fields are optional. Failing to make a selection from a specific field means that this field will not be a factor in your search and will not restrict your results.

As with any search of this kind your chosen criteria may not yield any matches. If this happens, try relaxing your search criteria if searching by several fields or keywords at once. Also note there may be a delay of several hours between when a document is uploaded to the site and when it will appear in search results.

Details for each field:

Keyword

Enter one or more words to search for. The search scope will include all descriptive fields (author, title, state, etc.) as well as the contents of the resources themselves. Note that partial words can also be used. Entering “city” will return all entries with “City of New York” as well as all entries with “electricity” somewhere in their descriptive fields or the contents of their attached file. This search is not case sensitive. [Note that running a search using only the keywords field is the same as using the Quick Search Box in the toolbar at the top.]

Author

Enter all, or part, of the author’s name (first or last). Note that resources might be described as being authored by a person and/or an organization.

Adoption Years

Enter a 4 digit year into each field. If searching for only a single year, enter that same year in both fields. The adoption year description is geared towards legislation but also applies to news articles and research papers. For these types, this field refers to the year of publication.

Resource Type

This field is used to categorize resources into separate groups. Choose one or more types from this list for your search. Note that these types are mutually exclusive so resources will only be attached to one of them. If you select several your search will show resources from all of those groups.

Topic

This field is used to tag resources by their subject matter. Choose one or more topics from this list for your search. Note that a resource may be tagged with more than one topic. If you select several your search will show resources that are tagged with any of those topics, not necessarily all together.

State

This field is used to tag resources by their applicable state(s). Choose one or more states from this list for your search. Note that a resource may be tagged with more than one state. If you select several your search will show resources that are tagged with any of these states, not necessarily all together. For example, if a resource applied to New England it would be tagged with all six applicable states. To find it, you could search by any of these six but you need not select all six in order to have it appear in your search. Also, there are two special designations that start with the “@” symbol. These are for resources which are at the federal level or are not state specific. Those two designations are mutually exclusive both with each other as well as to specific states.

Quick Search Box

The quick search box is in the top toolbar of the site: the text box with the magnifying glass which is always visible. Enter one or more words to search for. The search scope will include all descriptive fields (author, title, state, etc.) as well as the contents of the resources themselves. Note that partial words can also be used. Entering “city” will return all entries with “City of New York” as well as all entries with “electricity” somewhere in their contents or descriptive fields. This search is not case sensitive. [This search has the same functionality as running a query on the advanced search page and using only the “Keywords” field.]