Black Rock Solar

CNN Money just picked up the PR Newswire release of today’s event, here is a link, and here’s the text, more after the jump:

Gerlach Schools Go Solar for the Holidays

Burning Man, MMA Renewable Ventures, Sierra Pacific Power Collaborate for Community Clean Energy

December 18, 2007: 08:00 AM EST

GERLACH, Nev., Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Students in Gerlach will be celebrating a “green” Christmas because their campus will soon be powered by renewable energy. An array of solar panels installed at the campus is expected to generate up to 162,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually for the next 25 years. The total energy savings over that time period is expected to surpass $480,000. The approximately $20,000 per year savings will directly benefit the students and faculty of the rural school, according to the Washoe County School District.

Gerlach’s new 90-kilowatt, photovoltaic, solar power system resulted from a pioneering collaboration between Sierra Pacific Power, Burning Man, MMA Renewable Ventures, SCHOTT Solar and the Washoe County School District. The SCHOTT Solar panels were installed at no charge to the school district through a combination of donated labor and materials and Sierra Pacific’s SolarGenerations rebate program. “The Burning Man community has long been a part of the Northern Nevada community, and when this opportunity to give something back came up we jumped on it,” explained Marian Goodell, board member of Black Rock City, LLC.

Representatives from the town of Gerlach, the school district, Burning Man, Sierra Pacific and MMA Renewable Ventures will celebrate the completion of the ground-mounted solar array on Tuesday, Dec. 18. The installation consists of three 30-kilowatt solar systems, and they provide nearly enough electricity to supply all of the energy needed for the campus, according to Bruce Deetken, energy manager for the school district. The Gerlach campus consists of three schools that serve 83 students from kindergarten through high school. Read the rest of this entry »

Coverage begins of the Gerlach solar array. First up: CNET.com

At a ribbon cutting ceremony Tuesday in Gerlach, Nev., members of the Burning Man community are expected to demonstrate that they mean what they say when they say they try to leave places in better shape than when they found it.

That’s because, at the ribbon cutting at a K-12 school in Gerlach, a new Burning Man-supported nonprofit called Black Rock Solar will publicly unveil its plan for bringing no- or low-cost solar power to public institutions in disadvantaged or financially depressed communities in Nevada and beyond.

The idea behind Black Rock Solar is to find worthy recipients for whom to donate fully installed solar arrays that can then provide a source of free power for years to come. Black Rock Solar is partnering with MMA Renewable Ventures and Nevada utility company Sierra Pacific Power to provide the labor, expertise, and equipment necessary to get the solar arrays on line.

MMA will donate the equipment, the costs of which will be largely offset by rebates available under Nevada law to public users of solar power.

Already, Black Rock Solar has installed a 30-kilowatt array at a hospital in Lovelock, Nev. Now, the Gerlach school–actually, a side-by-side elementary and middle/high school–will be getting a 90-kilowatt array that should provide as much as $20,000 a year in free power. The rebates for those two projects total around $600,000.

“As a whole, the community looks at it like, ‘Wow, this is a big change. You really are putting your money where you mouth is.’”

–Carol Kaufmann,
school principal
Read the rest of this entry »

On the playa, this one made sense, outlining as it did the three projects we had in mind ( for those w/difficultly reading it, it says “Gerlach, Black Rock, Lovelock”.) But with them all but done, what should we change that bottom line to? Got ideas? Email them to tom (at) blackrocksolar.org

Please feel invited to come to the dedication ceremony for the 90kW solar array being gifted to the Gerlach school on Tuesday, December 18th, at 12 noon. Ribbons, lights, there’ll even be punch and cookies!