Black Rock Solar

It never ceases to amaze me all the interesting angles people take to talk about our projects, and this story is a perfect example. Written for wi-fi planet.com, it has some really interesting analysis of how the projects work, and what the social context for them is, all done via a hook to wifi.

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“Solar power’s usually been the exclusive purview of large institutions or wealthy do-gooders, because it’s so expensive,” Price says. But Black Rock partnered with MMA Renewable Ventures, Sierra Pacific Power, and the Washoe County School District and in December flipped the switch on a 90 kilowatt, ground-mounted solar array for the Gerlach schools. Black Rock also installed a solar array for a hospital in Lovelock, Nevada.

“We’ve married fiscal capital to social capital to give even small rural communities a seat at the renewable energy table,” he says. Rebates from the utility just about cover the costs incurred, says Price. Moving forward into future projects, he says any expenses beyond the rebates will be easily covered by savings.”

Read the whole thing here. 

City Editor Steve Jones has a column in today’s San Francisco Bay Guardian about Burning Man, Burners Without Borders, and Black Rock Solar. Click the link to read how they’ve all evolved in the direction of leaving a solar legacy behind, long after we’re gone.

School Receives Largest Green Christmas Gift in History

by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 12.19.07

That’s right folks, kids on the Gerlach school campus in Nevada received what probably serves as the largest green Christmas gift in history. Receiving a 90KW solar system for their school that will be pumping out clean energy long after they’ve graduated, and quite possibly when their own kids show up to sing Christmas carols one day.

The panels themselves are actually expected to generate up to 162,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually for the next 25 years. With the total energy savings over that time period expected to surpass $480,000. And the approximately $20,000 per year savings will directly benefit the students and faculty at the school, according to the people running the very rural Washoe County School District which serves a grand total of 83 students grades PreK-12.

Make no mistake about it, that’s a huge amount of money each year for such a small school district to put to good use.

And ultimately it’s all a result of a unique partnership between the folks at Burning Man, MMA Renewable Ventures, Sierra Pacific Power, and Black Rock Solar. A relatively young non-profit who’s founder Tom Price points out can turn every dollar donated into seven dollars worth of renewable energy. (Read the rest here)

This story keeps on truckin–here’s a link to the NY Times today.

And to a business magazine in Baltimore 

And to Yahoo Finance 

From the local NPR affiliate.

The following are links to stories regarding the event yesterday. Four television stations covered it very well (the online version don’t do the actual stories justice), KKOH AM780 Radio did too (they are typically critics of Burning Man) and the Reno Gazette Journal had a teaser on page 1 followed by a story by Bill O’Driscoll on the business page.
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071219/BIZ/712190430/1071/BIZ

http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/12600081.html

http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7513827

http://www.ktvn.com/Global/story.asp?S=7516227

http://www.solarindustrymag.com/e107_plugins/content/content_lt.php?content.779