Oregon begins building first "solar highway" project
By Darren Murph 
posted Aug 17th 2008 9:20AM
posted Aug 17th 2008 9:20AM
Just over a year ago, we passed off a far-out proposal that would turn highways into wind farms. Now, however, the state of Oregon is proving that such feats are actually within reach as it breaks ground on the first so-called "solar highway" demonstration project. The project will be installed at the Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 interchange in Tualatin, where it will cover around 8,000 square feet and produce 112,000 kilowatt hours per year. The total cost for the 104-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system is $1.3 million, and believe it or not, it should be completed and operational in December of this year.[Via Digg]
Good Job!
ya, because there's a ton of sunshine filled days in Oregon. /fail
a 28% offset? That's terrible, and nearly pointless...
It'll only take 175 years to return the investment (6.2 cents a kilowatt hour), assuming no one ever builds there and these solar panels are of godly quality. Oh, and that the sun actually shines enough (unlikely).
@Reader
Who cares, they aren't selling the power to consumers, they're using the power for their own purposes to take the extra load off from PGE and save themselves a few dollars in the long run from not paying rising energy costs. Its all on their website. They are not selling the power to the average household, they're using it for private use.
http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/OIPP/inn_solarhighway.shtml
Quote from site above:
"The objective of the solicitation is to procure the generation of at least 2,000,000 kilowatt hours per year of renewable electricity from ODOT-owned rights of way, properties, facilities and other built assets, at no greater cost than ODOT is currently paying for power. The successful third party or parties will construct at their own expense, own, operate and maintain the solar systems and sell all electricity generated by the systems to ODOT under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), for a term from 6 to 20 years, or longer."
What they're doing is spelled out in The Procurement Section. How much power does a Highway Department need? Enough to build their own solar power plant, not enough to rely on big energy companies who rape you with increasing energy costs blaming it on high gas prices.
@Setnev; No -- you're missing the point. That same $1.3mm could be used to buy energy for the NEXT 100 YEARS+. It's not some free pile of money sitting around somewhere that just magically appeared out of thin air -- it's money that came from Oregon resident's taxes. Government has a fiduciary responsibility to not waste it on boondoggle grandstanding projects. They would be FAR better off buying $1.3mm worth of renewable energy on the open market if they really were concerned about environment / costs / etc.
Even if I was an Oregon resident, I'd rather have my money for taxes be spent on alternative fuel sources. Even if you buy $1.3 million worth of coal, the coal's gonna run out.
Hell, if they really want to impress people, they should go all out and retrofit buildings with huge solar panel arrays...
28% is a significant chunk and if you actually think of this as a beginning development and R&D towards the future then we are on to a lot in the future of relieving Power companies from the many burdens they so often complain of :). 28% here, 30% there... and growing. You know the car did not start off using only gasoline, many early cars were coal or BATTERY powered! try thinking a little deeper.
London wouldn't be able to use this - we have the world's longest car park here, as we often say.
don't you need sun-light for solar energy?
@McFly - are you referring to London or Oregon? Neither are optimal locations for a solar farm.
I've been to Portland, Oregan many times and the word 'solar' doesn't come to mind. Overcast, and raining.
What the heck are they putting solar collectors up there for?
My thoughts exactly. If you want some kind of return on taxpayer investment, locations that would come to mind are Florida, Texas or New Mexico. But *Oregon*?
Yuma, AZ. In the Guinness Book of World Records as the place with the most sunshine in the world. Two SMALL solar demonstration projects (one in a city park, the other on the roof of a community college science building), and that's it. Go figure.
IT's because they have the will in the state. Obviously the best solar areas are southern/inland california, just about all of nevada, new mexico, arizona, and a large portion of texas. The problem is getting the states and or federal government to start building out the projects! But there are also good areas for solar in a few parts of (eastern) Oregon and Washington, southern Idaho, parts of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana
its been sunny here for the past few days! its amazing! i didnt know the sky was the same color as the engadget logo! THAT IS SO COOL!
another reason to hope for a sunny day where i live
seriously this time of year is the only thime that it will be useful lol spring and fall waaaay to rainy and cloudy most of the time and the sun is rare in the winter
@loosely_coupled - couldn't agree more!
sure there's cities with more sun - but portland has something better, the *will* to do something:
http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2008-02/americas-50-greenest-cities?page=1
A neat idea for already used space, so will this run between the two opposing lanes?
That'd be a terrible idea. Then as soon as a drunk guy decides to jump the barrier with his busted arse car, all the expensive solar panels shatter.
"Then as soon as a drunk guy decides to jump the barrier with his busted arse car, all the expensive solar panels shatter."
Woaaaw! How many hits would THAT YouTube video get?
What's the point of it being by a highway?
unused government owned land.
That sounds great. I'd like to see such projects come down here to Florida.
Well, it's a start at least for now, perhaps in the future it would be 100% or even greater.
it looks like the roughly 13' X 600' strip will be on highway right-of-way alongside the actual highway.
shortsighted. someday power will be generated by solar capture built into the roadways themselves. Only the acreage of parking lots might rival that vast surface area, exposed to the sun all day, east-to-west, north-to-south. it might sound like science fiction now, but wait--and watch, as the technology is developed and the infrastructure requires replacement. In the 50s the Eisenhower-prodded Interstate highway system was built for reasons of national defense, to allow massive troop and equipment movement that couldn't be accommodated by existing state and national highways. But it also altered the face of America economically and culturally. Ironically, less than 100 years later, the revision of that Interstate system will once again address the nation's defense, by reducing our need for foreign oil. And at the same time it will once again dramatically alter our economy and culture.
I appreciate you thinking out of the box. We do that kind of thinking a lot around here. Texas has accepted wind and towers are all over our hills. I don't see any problems with it and they are not that distracting from the view.
Along the highways is right-of-way. We own it and should put it to use. As solar becomes cheaper and innovation finds better and faster ways to get it to the public, we should see it along side our roadways. In Texas, our blinking lights along highways are current powered by solar panels on the poles with a battery attached lower down the pole.
I am personally looking at electric vehicles. I can make it to work on our town streets with a neighborhood electric vehicle. As a food shopper, I have cut back a lot. No movies, no eating out and I am very price sensitive.
I am cheated everyday we continue to support big oil. Remember that we are paying those big companies to mine the oil for us. We own it to begin with.
@linda
i lived in houston for a portion of my childhood so i am glad that Texas is starting to turn to alternative fuel sources. i will be honest, i never expected to hear the words "Texas" and "thinking out of the box" in the same sentence. i am not saying anything about you, but there are a lot of people down there, and i am sure you know the ones i am talking about, who are so set in their ways you cant talk to them.
also, your argument that its insulting that we pay the oil companies to take the oil that we already own out of the ground. thats not true. first of all, the oil companies put a significant amount of money and risk into locating oil reserves and drilling for them. also, the oil that comes out of the ground cant go right into your engine, it has to be processed in a refinery. if it was as simply as investing a few thousand dollars to get the oil and you could put it in your car then everyone would just drill themselves. however it doesnt work like and thats why we pay the oil companies to drill, refine, and transport the oil that "we own"
Yah, because Oregon is a great place to have sunlight, especially that particular area.
Seriously, 3/4ths of the year is spent under the clouds.
Interesting article, but how about linking to the original piece, rather than a Digg link. As you guys seem to make your living by reading original work, re-writing it & passing it on, I would think ethically you should at very least link to the original. Digg did not create this story.
click on the pic
Absolutely awsome. An aditional thought: Here in Germany we estimate a 400-450 kilowatt hours-per-year approx. power consumption for a four headed family. I don't know any specific numbers, bun maybe its comparable to your homes. Assuming that these numbers have a valid character for your american standards, 112 000 kwh/y will be enough for 250 houses, pretty weak though.
8000 squarefeet are aproximately 2.8 km², keeping the low inhabitants - density of the US and A in mind, relativizes the weak output!
just a note, 8000 sq ft is not NEARLY 2.8KM^2....it's actually only 0.0007432 square KM...
Really? The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year (at least according to the articles that said Gore used 20x the national average). Wonder exactly how Americans consume so much more than Germans? My guess is you Germans are better at keeping your wifes from leaving lights on.
Really? The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year (at least according to the articles that said Gore used 20x the national average). Wonder exactly how Americans consume so much more than Germans? My guess is you Germans are better at keeping your wifes from leaving lights on.
You're completely wrong schmitty. You obviously have no sense of what a kilometer is, because that is a ridiculous assertion. A square mile would be 5280 square feet, and a mile is 1.61 km. Thus, it is around 2.44 square km, according to my calculation. Google calculator isn't as smart as you obviously think it is.
You are very bold for being so wrong, vince. 5280 square feet would be a 5280'x1' rectangle, not anything near the area of a square mile. One square mile is 5280' long by 5280' wide, which means that any third grader would know that to get the area of a rectangle or square, you multipy length by width, not length by 1, to get the area in square units (27,878,400). By your calculations, a reasonably large house would occupy one square mile of area. Does that sound logically reasonable? Unless you are less than 10 years old, your immense stupidity is not justified.
Haha....wow Vince, you just made a complete ass of yourself. I hope you have learned something today.
but you were even more wrong schimtty. :)
@Skywide
What? How was I wrong?
I live in this area and they have a huge problems with drug addicts stripping the city of copper wires for drug money. Solar panels just provide another rich target for them. ROFL.
Absolutely...Unless these things are under 24x7 guard if there is any valuable metal material there for methheads they'll be stripped and have to be replaced/rebuilt like clock work.
Have you seen how fast people go through that interchange? I used to live in Clackamas and work in Tualatin... I thought I was going to die every day on my way home. Any methhead trying to get to that installation are going to end up a small, red mark on the road.
Unless it's rush hour, but most of that stuff gets taken at night.
I am just afraid that malicious teenagers will start chucking rocks at the panels breaking the glass from impact. Anyone else have this thought going through his/ her mind while reading this?
What will they do about people who will try and steal the valuable materials the solar cells are made of?
Whether it works or not...I love the effort...remember, these are the early stages of alternative fuels...
I really can't understand all you chearleaders for this project. Did none of you ever pass basic math class? Maybe economics was never part of your school curriculum?
Even when calculating a cost per kilowatt hour that keeps pace with a reasonable projection for inflation (4% per annum), this thing will take over 100 years to pay back its investment. Do any of you *really* believe this installation will still be up & running, as is, from it's initial $.13mm cost, in more than a century??
This is nothing but a waste of taxpayer money on a symbolic project -- you might as well spend the same money to grace the Portland waterfront with sculptures for the "environmental impact" it will have. From a political standpoint it's great -- every politician who voted for this can now slap a "Green" label on their candidacy, and point to a nice big shiny thing alongside the highway, where everyone can see. All of this in one of the more rainy states in the country.
Oh, I know, I know... It's important we send a message, and we have to start somewhere, and besides, it's for the children. Spare me.
I'd much rather see *serious* investment in unused federal land in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, etc., with more efficient systems tied into the overall grid. (See http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/26/280-megawatt-solar-plant-headed-to-arizona-desert/)
Not local political grandstanding masquerading as "green initiatives"
Typo: $1.3mm, not $.13mm
Typo: $1.3mm, not $.13mm
There are roads in California (a relatively YOUNG state) that have been there for well over a hundred years (El Camino, Alameda De Las Pulgas) and stretch across a large portion of the state.
I don't see why these roads won't be fundamentally in the same location for the next 100 years and beyond.
It's easy to paint a near-future with giant technological leaps but the bottom line is we've been driving cars for 100 years and there's nothing out there that looks like it will change things soon.
With less maintenance than just about ANY other energy project this structure could be dribbling in electricity for well beyond the projected 100 years.
while you take inflation into account you failed to add in fossil fuels prices in the future. while natural gas is still cheap it has seen a huge increase in price even though prices are down now. we know they will be up in 20 years. since you or I can't predict the future who knows what will happen. wars and terrorist attacks can cause energy prices to shoot up.
remember it's a start. start building these along all highways and suddenly you have a nationwide solar plant using minimal space.
remember people were quick to hate on "horseless" carriages and look how that turn out.
That money would have been better spent towards a new nuclear reactor.
Could they have it built by December?
you must look into Japan's last 15 years' history with nuclear power to see how safe it isn't! check out Monju, or other power plants to see real near misses and small-scale, yet significant accidents have occurred here on a monthly basis! it only takes one big one to Cherynoble an entire region. Then who will pay for clean-up and other damages?
Tualatin, Oregon
Days per year with some sun: 141
Days per year with some precipitation: 152
Days per year with common sense shown: 0
What do you expect from a state that doesn't let you pump your own gasoline.
People need to stop whining about the cloud cover. Solar panels still get about 80% of their maximum output when clouds are present.
should call it the solar trail
Damn, I was gonna go there.
But all I've got is dysentry.
You guys need to read the article. This isn't being funded out of taxpayer dollars. A number of financial companies will pay for the installation and then sell the power to ODOT for the same price it is paying now. The reason this makes sense is that private companies are eligible for solar subsidies that ODOT is not. Some of those credits *are* Oregon state credits, but a bunch are Federal, which means I'm subsidizing your highway. That's fine with me.
Incidentally, the 8,000 sq ft size mentioned in both of these articles cannot be right. The fact sheet mentions 594 panels, which equates to 175w per panel -- a somewhat dated output capacity (newer panels like the ones I just put on a building generate 185w). Standard panels are 3'x6', so 594 panels would take up about 10,700 sq ft.
Not that anyone cares.
Adam,
You say that the project isn't being funded by taxpayer dollars, but that the private companies are doing this under state and federal subsidy? I just point out that those subsidies are taxpayer dollars.
These huge moneylosing alt energy projects at taxpayer expense can hurt more than help. People will see a critical analysis and decide not to invest in the next one which may make a lot more sense. Boondoggles can poison the water for real innovation.
Over 100 years I expect that there will be periodic cleaning, corrosion, wire maintenance issues, etc. and I'm not sure how much has been budgeted for this. But a 100+ year ROI is not the kind of project we should be cheerleading.
"Incidentally, the 8,000 sq ft size mentioned in both of these articles cannot be right. The fact sheet mentions 594 panels, which equates to 175w per panel -- a somewhat dated output capacity (newer panels like the ones I just put on a building generate 185w). Standard panels are 3'x6', so 594 panels would take up about 10,700 sq ft."
Huh? I've mostly seen panels that are approximately 30"x60", and current panels output range of 165-225 watts (all newer panels are not at the higher range). In fact, they may be getting a better deal for lower output models -- no reason for high efficiency when they have plenty of space (unlike a rooftop).
Hello?!? Look at Germany. ~1/3 of their power comes from solar. Also look at several companies that sell electricitry from solar panels installed on your roof at a fixed price under contract for the life of the panels that the utilities just can't match especially when you consider inflation.
Dude, I don't have any concrete statistics to hand, but I'm willing to bet a great deal of money that 1/3 of Germany's electricity supply does NOT come from solar.
Don't forget that when the Russians "accidentally" turned off the gas supply to Europe last year, the Germans bricked themselves and were very quick to get the Russians to sign a "Hey, we're your best buddies" agreement.
From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/04/AR2007050402466.html:
...
Last year, German exports accounted for 15 percent of worldwide sales of solar panels and other photovoltaic equipment, according to industry officials. German companies hope to double their share of the global market, which amounted to $9.5 billion last year and is growing by about 20 percent annually, said Carsten Koernig, managing director of the German Solar Industry Association, a trade and lobbying group.
...
For now, the technology remains expensive and barely registers as a fraction of total energy production -- less than 0.5 percent. The government hopes to increase that figure to 3 percent by 2020.
Many of the solar installers here in the US buy the excess of German and Japanese production.
"your an idiot"
Oh, really? What do you call somebody who doesn't start a sentence with an uppercase letter, can't spell "you're" and doesn't finish a sentence with a fullstop/period?
I didn't say that Germany wasn't developing and manufacturing solar technology. I said that Germany wasn't making 1/3 of its electricity from solar. Reply to what's written, not what you *think* is written.
Okay, since you guys are all guessing (or lying), I decided to spend 5 minutes to do a google search. The three (pro-solar) articles I read, said Germany currently produce 1-2% of it's electricity from solar. They hope solar will produce 25% of their energy by 2050. So DREW, you are full of crap.
You are right that Germany is a world leader in adding solar capacity. However, Germany doesn't really get that much sunshine, so their noble efforts to produce solar energy don't pay off nearly as much as they would in, say, Southern California or Italy.
BTW, I live in Southern California and my solar panels are almost a year old. They produce about 7kWh per day more than my household and home-based business consume.
Oregonians don't like Nuclear power. Please see "Trojan Power Plant".
oh fail'd reply
As an Oregonian I can tell you, this doesn't make much sense to us either...something like 40+ cents a kilowatt hour compared to 6+ cents from PGE...Also, the 1.3 million cost? Expect that to climb in an absurd manner. They just finished off a tram here that most Oregonians didn't care for the idea of either (but of course local government did it anyway as usual here) and if memory serves the cost was suppose to be around 10 million, well over 30 million dollars later the tram is now operational at a loss.
Leave it up to government to find new and inventive ways to flush tax payer dollars down the toilet.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for alternative energy WHEN IT PENCILS OUT.
People will gut a house for $100 worth of copper, but those panels are worth nearly $1000 each!
They'd better weld those solar panels in place and permanently station law enforcement next to this project.
Ugh. Armchair analyst children here: FAIL.
Yeah, don't come to Oregon. There's nothing here for you to see nor enjoy. Please stay out; OKTHXBY
Is that you former Portland mayor Bud Clark??? Glad to see your still at it! You tell those Californians to go to hell!
Wonder how much the bill will be for cleaning up the graffiti on the fronts of those panels???
Ya know some smrtazz kids are gonna do it.... "CLASS OF 2012!!!!"
I think you are missing the point. It has been labeled a demonstation project, more of a proof of concept than an actual money/fuel saver. When fossil fuels become even more scarce, demand for alternative energy will grow and solar panel manufacturing costs will fall as production volume increases. The point is at some time in the near future, other energy sources will need to be utilised, and solar panels take a huge amount of space to get a worthwhile power output. A road is a perfect place to build them without blighting the landscape.
PV doesn't need any proof of concepts. It's been proven over and over again in just about every application for over 30 years.
A perfect project that will take all interest off of solar power for the future, proving oil right.
but an idea to think about, roads are already there, make a power out of their surface seems brilliant but hard to achieve. building solar power-plants in dessert areas is nice and all, but adding that absorptive surface to earth doesn't seem to be the remedy to a warmer planet.
"also, if 2/3 of your population had no power.. dont you think you would want to be friends with the suppliers of the power?"
Where are you getting '2/3' from, zed?
Tell you what, I'll spell it out - especially for you. If Germany was making SO much electricity from solar (i.e. independent of foreign sources), why was the country so desperate to secure Russian supplies? Answer: Because Germany isn't making 1/3 of it's electricity from solar. It's dependent on Russia's gas and oil. TA-DA! Mystery solved...
"idiot"
Hmmm. You still haven't got the hang of those uppercase letters, zed....
Besides the many, many cloudy days in the area, pollution and filth from the very heavy traffic on the nearby multi-lane highways will make this solar collector dirty quickly thus reducing the amount of sunlight to generate electricity.
If they wanted to generate more electricity put it in the desert areas of eastern Oregon - lots of sun, land and little pollution.
the greater portland area has about 12% less solar efficiency than phoenix arizona, so it clouds don't really matter to much.
Oregon is considered one of the best states for solar power. Despite what you people think, were not pasty-white people who like to live in the dark. I'm glad to see that our state is taking steps in the right direction, because it seems like everyone else is dragging their asses.
Not because of the amount of sun. It's because of the amount of Solor Tax Credits Oregon gives.
If we can spend 1.3 trillion on two wars, why not 1.3 million on what amounts to solar energy research? Or better yet, spend 1.3 trillion on this instead, and have 100,000 miles of solar panels!
why don't they put those regenerative speed bumps in or water collectors up instead. Seems silly that they aren't even getting a discount but charged more then a typical house setup. Only thing I could see why its being more costly is they need to build something to place them on. I believe a 10 kilowatt system runs 80k about for a house and thats the most expensive setup. So wheres that extra 500k going to?
This project is a Power Purchase Agreement, which means all the costs are from a third party. The customer (ODOT) agrees to purchase all the energy the array produces for a period of time (6-20 years) at a fraction of utility rates (typically 80%-85%). There is no cost to the customer with the exception of paying the salaries of the people who put the deals together. When a company bids on a project like this, they use weather data to model output and they take site security and module longevity into account. The customer just buys energy at below utility rates. If you don't know how photovoltaics and contracts work, please do not try to educate people about photovoltaics and contracts.
No cost to consumers/taxpayers? Are you kidding? The companies and governments involved will past those costs along to the consumer/taxpayer.
Hey, I live in Tualatin and pretty darn close to this interchange. While we do get our fair share of rain, we also get our fair share of sunlight. Before you show your ignorance about Oregon, perhaps you should stop and realize how much Oregon and Portland metro area is leading the green push through sustainable building practices amongst other things. In fact, this project will utilize solar technology developed in state. Maybe instead of slagging Oregon and this idea, you should direct your energies to your own elected officials and utility directors and find out why they are incapable of utilizing this kind of technology....
I live about a mile or two from the interchange. This is a terrible idea. Not only has the entire area been under construction up to this point, it just adds to the traffic issues.
I'm going to assume clackamas county has something to do with this. If that is the case, this kind of waste and stupidity is common among these folks. They also allowed 3 super-gigantic-enormous churches to be built within a mile of each other about two miles down from the interchange (stafford road exit). Deadlocked traffic on back roads is now a common thing along stafford, borland, and ek road. Not to mention the construction.
BS. Panel efficiency drops 50% just on a day where it is cloudy but can still cast a shadow.
Many people do not realize that solar cells degrade over time. High quality panels may last 20-30 years. Lower quality 5-10. This assumes the base infrastructure holding up the cells survives as long, which is doubtful.
Fifty years from now, people will rue the day they allowed the landscape to be littered with solar arrays and wind farms, all falling apart and creating a wide scale industrial waste nightmare. We will spend trillions cleaning up all this crap.
I would like to say that there is no reason that we cant farm solar energy in eastern oregon in between brotheres and burns a hundred miles north and a hundred miles south. That is a 3 hour drive of nearly flat desert that has nothing but sage and the invasive juniper tree. We would have a little snow fall during the winter but the last trip I made out there was in boardmen with is north and it was in february and it was over a 100 degrees all day every day. there is always sun beating down on the baren desert maybe even over 300 days a year. I have traveled the desert in the whole area and the great thing is there is a giant set of power lines that go from the columbia gorge and north, strait down to california. I could set up a government grant to lease a 10,000 acre property for the next 100 years and set up a system for the public to be able to invest in their future, by buying their own panels at a workable price. and as the system builds cash flow then we would buy more and more panels. There is no reason that we cant make our usage from solar to nearly 75%or more. If I built a solar farm in eastern oregon I could produce more than enough energy to power every home in the usa. I am not even talking about when all our cars will be electric. we will probably be fueling our autos in our garage with a charger system in the future. How much energy will we be using then? It can all come from natural energy. We should give up burning fuel. We should save it for all the plastic thing we will need for the next 1000 years. it takes millions of dollars in energy to grow our giant trees if we had to use all the electricity to grow them for 45 years, that energy is freeeeeeeeeee for trees. We can harvest energy so easy from many natural systems, Like falling water, and the never ending wind, and the waves, rivers flowing that could turn generators. I think that it is silly how there is always naysayers about the good solutions and no one cares to change the whole energy system. when the whole answer is found by looking up.
Eventually all of our cars will be powered by either a battery charger that we change and swap out for a fresh charged one or we will have battery charge stations located like our current fuel stops.
We always think stupid crap like "the wind turbines kill seagulls" that is f*#%ed! who gives a crap about the seagulls they will never die off. we are killing our entire ecosystem off by the BURNING of fuels. I worked in the biofuel industry and it is not the answer.
I can not see any reason why we cant be harvesting the greatest energy source in the universe... The SUN!!!!!!
it is selfish that we have not already taken the step to change our bad habbits. I drive a one ton crew cab duramax diesel chevy truck that I use for my business, and I spend thousands of dollars each quarter on just getting to the jobs!! it sucks. why cant we be solving this damn problem already!!!!!!!!!!
Ok I know i am ranting. and I know that humans are animals of nessesity but come on its about past nessesary. If no one else starts farming the sun here in the great state of Oregon then I will! just look for it. We need to take it into our own hands and stop blogging about it and take care of our grandkids or we will just be stuck.
Oregon has always been the experimental state. When there is a new idea, some crazy oregonian goes out in the desert and welds some shit up and solves big problems. It will happen.
Dan Shultz
541 350 3996
oregondanman@gmail.com
if you want in then get a hold of me!
won't they be rather unsightly by the side of the road. surely roof tops are the way to go.
http://www.totalsolarenergy.co.uk/residential-solar-power.html