The City of Madison was recently awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy through the Solar America Cities Program, with a goal of doubling the number of solar electric and hot water solar installations in the city. Mayor Dave Cieslewicz says money from the grant will be used to hire a consultant, to provide free information to home and business owners who want to install solar energy systems under the MadiSUN program. Cieslewicz says advice from experts is usually all that is needed to make people comfortable with using solar power.