Communicating the STO is a key issue for its success: if you are able to inform people why you are doing that, they will understand and agree and they will end with considering this STO as their law.

Try to address each one of the actors with the most appropriate message:

• architects: “solar could be beautiful” or “solar is for sure beautiful, when you use it properly”

• final users:

1. “solar homes are the best where to live, for economics, environment and comfort”

2. “if you like and want solar, the right moment when to install it is when the building is under construction or refurbishment”

• building companies, designers:

1. “surplus cost is low”; provide them with simple (and correct!) figures

2. “at the same time solar homes have clear added values and they could give you competitiveness”

3. “you have the legal responsibility to comply with the law”

4. “there are checks and corresponding fees and both of them are actually and effectively working”

• Municipality staff: “our solar obligation is easy to apply”

• all the actors:

1. “our STO is easy to apply”

2. “our STO has a wide impact on reducing energy consumption and emissions in our City/Province/Region/Country”; show that you have a business plan, with clear targets and figures (emission savings, clean energy production, etc.)

3. “the building we build now will require energy for the next 50 years, so why should we rely on fossil fuels and not on clean renewable energy for the next 50 years?”

4. “this law gives you the “guaranteed right” of using clean, renewable and no-cost energy”

5. “solar thermal is the/one of the best technologies for fulfilling the obligation, given the local availability of solar resource”