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Solar Oregon - Organizational News
News about our organization
Organizational News August 2008
Oregon Green and Solar Tours Grant Awarded -
Oregon Department of Energy has awarded Solar Oregon a grant to support the Oregon Green and Solar Tours. This Grant provides title level sponsorship for the 2008 and 2009 Oregon Green + Solar Tours plus partial underwriting of tours in participating communities. This grant will enable consumers to experience site tours in 13 to 20 communities throughout the state. Solar Oregon’s role is to provide the logistical and marketing support as well as a small $500 stipend to each local host organization.
Solar Oregon’s role is unique and leverages volunteer support through a statewide network to provide solar consumer education and outreach. They are the Oregon Chapter of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) which conducts national tour organization and marketing.
Public tours of solar homes and buildings is the single best way to market the use of solar energy in Oregon. Oregon’s Green and Solar Tours are among the best in the nation because they are coordinated at the state level, but run by local volunteer organizations that tailor their events to the local markets. Since 1999 the Oregon Department of Energy has assisted in the development of a statewide collaborative effort to host local public solar tours. This effort integrates the statewide Green + Solar tours with the Green & Solar magazine that is distributed free each year. This effort and is supported by the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association, the Energy Trust of Oregon, the City of Portland, 3EStrategies, SolWest/EORenew, and many local utilities.
Organizational News June/July 2008
Grants awarded and New Hire -This spring, Solar Oregon was awarded grants from Meyer Memorial Trust Foundation, Laird Norton Family Foundation and Energy Trust of Oregon, Inc. Meyer Memorial Trust and Energy Trust of Oregon have matched grant funds to help Solar Oregon develop new marketing projects designed to help Oregonians make the choice to go solar. This funding has allowed Solar Oregon to bring on Hadley Price as Marketing and Business Development Director. Hadley comes from a background in Information technology, database development and sales. His breadth of knowledge in developing small businesses and his information technology background will help Solar Oregon build the infrastructure to meet the information needs of the public for solar education and outreach. The Laird Norton Family Foundation has awarded Solar Oregon a general operating support grant in support of Solar Oregon’s work to increase the use of Solar in Oregon and drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Oregon Green and Solar Tours – In 2008, Solar Oregon will once again coordinate the Oregon Green and Solar Tours. In 2007, over 4,000 people visited 126 green and solar sites in 13 communities across Oregon. In 2008, we are expecting 15 communities to open their doors to the public this year. Solar Oregon’s role will be to host the tour website, conduct statewide PR, assist community tours with logistical support, produce the tour section in Green + Solar Building Oregon magazine and produce a Statewide Tour brochure. Solar Oregon also acquires sponsorship for this event in an effort to provide stipends to each of the tour communities in support of their local efforts.
Goal Net Zero Home Tour Success - The 2008 Goal Net Zero Home Tour, conducted on May 3rd 2008, was a huge success! Approximately 90 people turned out for this full day event which included a networking session, 2hr workshop, lunch and tour of 4 homes in the Portland reaching for Net Zero Energy use. The homes on this tour received quite a bit of publicity from Wired Magazine to the Oregonian and KATU news. Highlights of the tour included Christopher Dymond and Doug Boleyn's co-presentation on getting to Net zero and an examination of four very different homes and their approach to Net Zero energy use.Christopher presented information on high performance homes, cost effective energy efficiency measures and tax incentives.Doug covered the specific and unique ways each of the homes approached their goals of Net Zero energy use. Participants at this event were encouraged to 'play along' by calculating their own Energy Use Index for comparison with the homes on the tour.
Oregon Builds a Solar Forest - Rainy Oregon turns out to have better solar resources than Germany or Japan - and it's become a hotbed of solar development. Click Here to read the complete article by Michael VanDerwater, Executive Director, Solar Oregon.