Salt Lake City and its coalition of partners are lit up about an announcement that it is one of 16 municipal recipients across the country that can tap into $10 million in support of solar-energy projects.

The Tuesday announcement means more federal stimulus dollars will help the city, Salt Lake County and other agencies embark on the second phase of its project through development of financing and overcoming any regulatory barriers to solar-energy use.

The Salt Lake area joins 25 other Solar America cities across the country, including San Diego, Seattle and Boston that have been tapped by the Department of Energy to expand solar-energy use.

Lisa Hamilton-Smith, Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker's spokeswoman, said officials are expecting approximately $350,000 for the second tier of the project.

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon said the additional funding represents another step toward bringing widespread solar energy to the Wasatch Front.

The city and county partner with Utah Clean Energy, the Utah State Energy Program, Kennecott Land Co., the governor's office of economic development, Ballard Spahr and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council. The goal of the Solar Salt Lake program is to develop a fully scoped city- and county-level implementation plan that will facilitate at least 10 megawatts of new photovoltaic installations in government, commercial, industrial and residential areas by 2015.