Hi everyone!

Where to start, there’s so much news from last few weeks, all of it good.

1- We started and finished our newest project, for the 7th Day Adventist Church in Reno. This was a great project–all of the estimated $7200 a year savings from the 30kW system will benefit the students who attend a day school there. Here’s a photo of our crew on the morning they finished up, along with the Pastor and project manager Larry Turpen:

The project will be a great educational tool for the students there, and we’re looking forward to the dedication in a few months, when we can talk to the congregation about renewable energy, and how it can make a difference in addressing climate change.

2- We got our own Nevada State Contractors License! Even though we didn’t think we really needed it, we decided to get one anyway. It was a long, very educational process, and now it’s in our hot little hands.

3- We won another award! We’re honored and grateful to be recognized by the Nevada environmental community for our work, and received the Nevada Eco Net Non-Profit of the year award in a great ceremony at the University of Nevada Reno…right underneath our last installation. No, seriously; everyone was about 25 feet below it, in the grand ballroom. Pretty cool, eh?

4-We’ve been asked to see if we can’t help the Food Bank of Northern Nevada with some solar for their brand new facility just east of Reno. This is pretty much our dream project–they moved into their new building this summer, and were stunned when they got their July power bill: $7,000. Putting solar on their building would mean leaving dollars in their bank account, and when asked what they would use it for, their Development Director said simply “we’ll buy more peanut butter and tuna fish, and give it to hungry people.” Well, it doesn’t get much more worthwhile than that. It would also be an outstanding educational facility, since it sits right in the middle of the largest industrial park in North America. How big? Well, their next door neighbor is the regional distribution center for Wal Mart, and contains 1,000,000 square feet under a single, 23 acre roof. Imagine if just a few neighbors like that got inspired to build solar!

We’ll be using this installation as a cornerstone for an outreach and education effort to members of the local business community, and know that the media attention surrounding this installation will turn a lot of people on to the benefits of solar power.

5- In hopes of keeping folks up to date on a more frequent basis, we’ve joined the herd stampeding to Twitter. You can follow our updates here.

6- From the “they said it couldn’t be done files” : for months we’ve been telling anyone who would listen about just how important and valuable it would be if the Nevada Public Utility Commission voted to allow 3rd Party Ownership of renewable energy systems in Nevada. Well, at their last meeting, the PUC agreed! What does this mean? 3rd party ownership will allow an outside party, like an energy developer, to own and operate a PV system on behalf of someone else. That frees up the site host from having to come up with all the money up front ( a big stumbling block, especially in these trying times ), and allows them to lock in their energy costs at a set rate. The developer, in turn, then gets to take advantage of the recently renewed Investment Tax Credit. As a non-profit, Black Rock Solar can’t benefit from this new policy, but we supported it because we believed it will help expand the solar industry in Nevada, creating much needed high wage “green collar” jobs.

7- Speaking of locking in rates–better do it soon! NV Energy recently announced plans for a whopping 17.5% rate increase next year; ouch! About the only silver lining on this cloud? It means the installations we’ve already completed ( some 248kW) will save even more money for the people we built them for, and that means more support for communities in need.

8- Happy Anniversary! It’s a little late, but still close enough for us to wish ourselves happy anniversary; it was on November 17th 2007 we dedicated our first project, for the Pershing General Hospital, and on December 20th last year we dedicated the arrays at the Gerlach Schools. Those systems are really delivering for the site hosts. For example, just a couple weeks ago we heard that Principal LaMarca at the Gerlach School had received her first savings disbursement from the school district, representing the money they would have otherwise spent on the school for electricity during that time. The first check, covering March to June, was $6,028, right on track to save the school the $19,000+ we estimated they would save. They and the other school we’ve done, the Natchez School in Wadsworth, will now receive annual checks from the district at the beginning of their fiscal year, in July, which will help them be able to plan their school year and how to spend all the money they’ve saved!

It’s been an incredible year–we’ve built 248 kW of solar for communities in need, helped grow the solar industry in Nevada, become a licensed contractor, and been named an “Environmental Hero” by People Magazine. Not bad for a start up!

Thanks to everyone for all their support, and we look forward to many more successes in 2009.

Till then, happy holidays.

-Black Rock Solar