Black Rock Solar

Our crew has arrived in Shelby, Michigan to begin building an array for the Shelby High School, in conjunction with the ROTHBURY festival and Bauer Power. Here’s an article in a Michigan newspaper that explains what the whole thing is about and how it came to be–check it out!

We hope to have images/video of the installation in the next couple days.

Last Friday the new 60kW array for the Natchez Elementary School was dedicated in a really wonderful, moving event, that really shows how building renewable energy can help build community.

We got great news coverage, from Channel 4 in Reno, as well as Channel 2.

First, each of the classes came out one by one, from preschool to 6th grade, to trace their hand and sign their name on a board posted at the front of the array. It reads “This solar array belongs to the students of Natchez Elementary School.” All were wearing tie-die shirts they’d made the day before…and then stenciled the Burning Man/Black Rock Solar logo on. By the time we were finished, all 170 students, their teachers, the school staff and our crew had signed.


Then, we got together on the lawn of the school for a hot dog picnic, and some speachifying from all our stakeholder partners, like Sierra Pacific Power, the Washoe County School District, and tribal chairman Mervin Wright. All told, some 420 people passed Chef Spoon’s hot dog buffet line, a huge number from such a small town ( population 845 at last count)!

A traditional dancer, accompanied by two young ladies, who were recently crowned “Miss Natchez” princesses, then performed a dance on the school lawn.

Then, in a complete surprise, we were called up to receive a gift: a framed eagle feather, with a beaded quill, and with the eponymous stone pyramid of Pyramid Lake painted on the back. The caption read simply “Thank you Black Rock Solar, from the Natchez Elementary School.”

After gathering the crowd at the front, the two Little Miss Natchez princesses cut the ribbon, and lead the community through the array for a close up look.

Over the next 25 years, the array will save the school district some $360,000 in energy bills, half of which will get to stay in the school for the benefit of these kids.

It was a great culmination to a long, sometimes delayed project. We’ve come a long way in a couple months from a patch of dirt….

…to a beautiful 60 kilowatt solar array, that will still be working when these kids are sending their kids to this school.

It was, in a very real way, the sort of event that is the reason we do this work at all. Because of a solar array, a community came together and celebrated their past and look at the promise of the future, and then gave them some of the resources they’ll need to grab it. All made possible by our fantastic crew, our great partners at MMA and Sierra Pacific, and the donations and support of people like you. From all of us, many thanks.

The crew today finished cleaning up the installation site for the twin 30KW arrays built for the Natchez Elementary School in Wadsworth, NV. The arrays will benefit the students, all of whom live on the surrounding Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation.

There will be a dedication ceremony and community BBQ at noon on May 30th, at the array in front of the school. The address is 180 HWY 447, right in the middle of Wadsworth. Want to come by? Let us know, so we can plan ahead.

With completion of this project, Black Rock Solar will have installed 180KW of clean renewable energy in Northern Nevada since October of last year. Over the next 25 years, those arrays will save those communities more than $1,080,000 in electric bills, money than can otherwise be spent supporting the needs of the community.

That’s why last week Executive Director Tom Price, and Construction Manager Richard Scott met with the interagency group from the Pyramid Lake Tribe, to discuss future projects on the reservation, in the town of Nixon. We’re looking into building solar on the schools and community center. Those projects might take place in the fall.

Before then, we’ll be starting soon on building a 30KW array on the Joe Crowley Student Union building at the University of Nevada, Reno. After that, we’ll either be doing a community church in Sparks, or another school in the Reno area, with a brief trip out to the ROTHBURY festival, before breaking for the Burning Man event in August. And if we can raise enough money, we hope to do another ‘gift’ of solar to the town of Gerlach post-event, just like last year. Stay tuned…

Interested in volunteering? Fill out the form on our web site, so we can get in touch with you, or drop Program Director Corey Sauer a line at corey@blackrocksolar.org

Considering a donation? Consider this: $1 donated to Black Rock Solar lets us leverage $5 in public rebates, and $3 in donated labor and low cost equipment, to create (over 25 years ) $6 worth of free, renewable energy. We turn every dollar donated into $14, and you can write the donation off on your taxes. Donate via our web site, or email tom@blackrocksolar.org for more details.

Thanks for all your support, and BIG thanks to our hard working crew: Matt Deluge, Doug Drummond, Dave Lasky ( keeper of the wonder mascot, Crow), Eli Lyon, Michael Small, Scott “Spoon” Stephenson, Zarian Webster.

Our project at ROTHBURY got some more digital ink today, on TREEHUGGER and GRIST.

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.