Black Rock Solar

After many fits and starts, and a burned out web bridge or two, thanks to the dedicated work of Chris Petrell we’ve finally got our real time reporting of the power output from our 90KW Gerlach array! It still has a few bugs in it ( the money saved is too generous, for example ), and it doesn’t go all the way back to when the system was finished, but it is reporting, and looking good. Even on a windy day like today ( and white out conditions ), it still cranked out a lot of power. Check it out via this link.

In this week’s April 21st issue of People magazine, there’s a story profiling three “environmental heroes” who’re doing their part to help preserve our planet. (Here’s a link to a press release about that, and our latest project at Natchez Elementary.) Although the photo they chose only shows one person, Ex. Director Tom Price, the real heroes were standing just to the left. The crew of Black Rock Solar are the ones make our work of giving solar power to schools and hospitals possible, and they’re the ones who really deserve the credit–check em out!

From left: Corey Sauer, Richard Scott, Dave Lasky (and Crow, our mascot), Dough Drummond, Dick Hughes, Micheal Small, James Spurlock, Scott “Spoon” Stephenson, Elisha Lyon, Matt Deluge. Not shown: Joe Pizur, Nico Balustra, Deanna Westberg, Jonathan Gevas, Matt Myntinnen, and many other awesome volunteers who make this project possible.

Hey folks-

I’m just back from a site visit to Rothbury, Michigan, checking out the location for our planned installation at Shelby High School, in conjunction with the ROTHBURY festival.

We’re planning to do a minimum 6 kilowatt installation there this summer–and perhaps a lot more. We’ve heard a whole lot of the people buying tickets to the event are “upselling” their ticket, with the added donations going directly to adding even more power to this project. We’ll also likely be there during the event offering solar-powered recharging for cell phones and PDAs to participants.

Meanwhile, the crew is making good headway on the Natchez Elementary School in Wadsworth, and we’re lining up more projects to follow right on the heals of that one–it’s going to be a busy year!

Thanks to everyone for their support and donations, they make all this work possible.

-Tom Price, emailing from the Minneapolis Airport.

Black Rock Solar is hard at work on our latest installation–a 60KW array for the Natchez School in Wadsworth, NV. Take a look at the location from space right here.

This project started on Wednesday, March 19th, following approval by the Washoe County School Board. We expect to finish in a month or so, and it’s expected to save the school some $14,000 per year in energy costs. Of that, half will go to the school directly, while the other half will go to a special school district fund to support other conservation measures at other district schools.   All of the students who attend this school live on the adjacent Pauite Indian Reservation, and as far as we know this is the first–but hopefully not the last–solar project built in this community.

The array will be located on the triangle of land west of the school, next to HWY 447–so pretty much anyone heading north on that road, like folks going to Burning Man, will drive right past it.

If you’re in the area, feel free to drop by and say hi to the crew. And, if you think you might have time to donate a day or two to help build it, please email corey@blackrocksolar.org with your contact info, background, and interest.