A new program is trying to get more Lexington residents hooked up to solar power by making it easier and cheaper to install solar panels.

The City of Lexington has partnered with the Kentucky Solar Energy Society to launch solar rise Lexington.

We spoke to Steve Ricketts of the Kentucky Solar Energy Society about how the program works and how people can get involved.

When you talk to people about going solar, there's a huge amount of interest, but there's two principal barriers that keep people away from it.

One is it comes at a price.

It's the same price as, say, putting a new decade in or buying a small car.

And the second is that people are a little bit afraid of its new technology.

It's a bit complicated.

Maybe they're not kind of knowledgeable off to make the purchasing decision and so as Lexington tries to address both of those barriers.

What it's done is actually clubbed together all of the residents in the city and negotiated a 20% price discount off regular pricing for anybody in the city who's interested in it.

Where the personal shoppers for solar in the city.

So nobody has to loan solar to then go and shop for it.

The job is done for you.

If people like the idea of solar where they can apply through the city solar eyes kind of web page to say, I'd like somebody to talk to me about this, and then all they need do is present one copy of a utility bill and provide us with a few home and location details.

Where are you?

How old is your roof?

And then the Kentucky Solar Energy Authority will do all the screening of your home to make sure it's right for solar.

We're very keen to not guide people to solar who won't get the economic kind of benefits out of it.

So we do say not a good idea to some people.

If you are the right candidate for solar, we pass it on to the selected installer.

And it's worth pointing out that it's not just homeowners.

We really encourage small businesses, non-profits, places of worship, all, you know, can get into this.

This was an idea we trialed in Louisville last year and we got nearly 100 homes converted to solar, and it worked so effectively it became the biggest campaign in the US in its very first year that we thought this is a wonderful mechanism to pick up the pace of solar adoption in our state.

In Louisville, we saw nearly 1300 people want to have their homes looked at and we're already well over 100 in Lexington in just a few days.

So the intent here is to build an approach which any city, any county, any organization can pick up and use in their own area to speed up the adoption of solar.

And we've already had inquiries from from other cities to be added to the list next year.

Record says Lexington isn't the only city looking to solar eyes.

Frankfort will also be launching a program within the next few weeks.