Solar Powered and Code Green

The U.S. Department of Energy announced Wednesday that Portland is one of thirteen U.S. cities, and the only city in the Pacific Northwest, to receive an inaugural Solar America Cities Award as part of the DOE’s "Solar America Initiative: Solar Market Transformation for Solar City Strategy Partnerships" fund. A total of $2.5 million was awarded to the 13 cities.

As enumerated in the handy press release, “Portland's two-year, $200,000 grant will facilitate the widespread adoption of solar technology by citizens and businesses. The funds will be used to educate the public about the viability of solar in rainy and cloudy climates, build demand for solar technology, and increase economic opportunity for solar manufacturers and installers."

"This grant will help us break through the myth that Portland isn't sunny enough for solar," said Commissioner Dan Saltzman in a prepared boilerplate statement. (Not that I disagree with anything he's saying - keep it up!) "In fact, solar energy has tremendous potential to generate environmentally friendly power for Portland homes and businesses, and to bring economic opportunity to our region's solar industry." Hell, one afternoon and the greenhouse effect inside my car alone could probably heat a McMansion.

The Solar America Cities grant will augment the work of the Office of Sustainable Development's “Solar Now!” program in partnership with Energy Trust of Oregon and the non-profit Solar Oregon. Solar Now! offers educational workshops, grassroots outreach and individualized assistance to homeowners and business owners interested in solar technology. The program also educates the public about tax credits and cash incentives that can help reduce the cost of solar technology by as much as 50 percent.

The City of Portland will also use grant funds to examine how to enhance the use of solar power in City operations. The City already uses solar technology in parking meters, maintenance trucks and on several fire stations.

Meanwhile, the local Cascadia chapter of the US Green Building Council is offering an upcoming informational talk called “Greening the Building Code”. Presenters will include John Hogan, chair of the Project Committee for ASHRAE/USGBC/IESNA Standard 189P and Senior Energy Analyst with the Seattle Department of Planning and Development; Rob Bennett, currently with the Clinton Climate Initiative and formerly with the City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development (look at you, Rob!); and Jon Gray, a Principal at Interface Engineering and a member of the Oregon Plumbing Board (those guys crack me up).

Among the questions the discussion aims to addres are: What is the role of the building code in supporting and regulating sustainable building practices? And how can building code officials maintain health and safety goals while meeting the demands of a changing building industry?  This is important, because for every LEED-rated building there are many, many more that aren‘t green at all. Greening the building code is the real way to affect widespread, industry-wide change after the early-adapters and pioneers have laid down the path.

“Greening the Building Code” is scheduled for Friday, June 29 from 8:30AM-12PM at the Ecotrust building, 721 NW 9th Avenue.

Comments

[Frank Dufay]

I love having Kermit the frog's picture on your post.

At first I was like...what?

Then, of course, his famous song lyrics came to mind:

"It's not easy being green"

Nice touch Brian.

[aa]

It seems like it might have made more sense to give all $2.5 mil to one city with a goal of creating a "showcase" American Solar City instead of spreading it around to 13 cities. My limited knowledge of the solar field tells me that $200,000 won't go very far. That said, it's better than nothing I guess...buys a few brochures and whatnot.

[Agustin Enriquez V]

$200,000 is real money. The PV array on OHSU's new building down in South Waterfront happened as a direct result of a $200,000 grant. The money from the grant closed the gap on the panels and the reduced load on the mechanical systems paid for the mounting brackets on the skin of the building. Admittedly that $200k only went to one building, but if my memory serves me correctly that PV array was the largest array on a building in all of Oregon (I do not know if there is a larger array now).

[chris]

This is great. I hope this money inspires other companies to use their often flat vacant roofs for other green ideas, like google's PV array

[Agustin Enriquez V]

To give you an idea of the magnitude of the google project referenced above, the OHSU array is currently producing 90 KW a day (it was projected to average 60 KW during the course of the year).

The google project is a 1,600 KW project--many many more times in size.

[Lara]

Keep up the good work.