Home

From SolarCreek

[edit] Who is Solar CREEK

Solar CREEK stands for Clean Renewable Energy for Everyone's Kids. We are a local group dedicated to creating solar-powered schools in Corvallis, Oregon. We have facilitated projects on Lincoln Elementary School and both First Alternative Co-op stores and Crescent Valley High School. Local for-profit company sponsors own the systems to maximized the use of state and federal tax incentives. Many thanks to our sponsors.

[edit] Present status

18-April-2012 Brian Wilson is re-activating this Web site to create a solar map of Benton county. It is a project of the Corvallis Open Source GIS group. For more information, see the CVO-OSGIS Google group.

The original SolarCREEK group has not been active since 2008 but the founders/members have gone on to other exciting solar projects including:

Last year, Brian Wilson completed a large scale state-wide solar project for ODOT: Oregon Solar Highways (Alsea Geospatial, Inc)

Local companies founded by SolarCREEK participants: Abundant Solar (James Reismiller) and Solar Ki (Laura Uhler) in Corvallis OR SunWize (Dave Eveland) in Philomath, OR

[edit] Solar CREEK Big Project

Our goal is place the largest public solar power system in Oregon a local public facilty using contributions from Corvallis citizens that want to symbolically own a small piece of a large system. With current incentives from the state, the Energy Trust of Oregon and federal government, we have shown that with each local dollar, we can leverage 4 more dollars. This means that as of today, solar power is cost competitive with the 79% coal power currently provided by our local utility. The only barrier is building the support for such a bold initative.

We are currently in contact with the City of Corvallis staff to discuss how this can best be structured. Come to our October 2007 presentation following the Solar Home Tour to learn more.

[edit] CORVALLIS GREEN AND SOLAR TOUR 2008

Fifth Annual Corvallis Green and Solar Tour Saturday, October 4, 2008, 12-5pm Homes on the tour feature solar electric, solar hot water, passive solar design, geothermal heating, green building materials and other efficient and green technologies. Homeowners will be present to answer questions. The tour is self-guided and tickets are $5 suggested donation with proceeds benefiting Solar CREEK. Maps to each tour location will be available at First Alternative Coop: 1007 SW 3rd St., and 2855 NW Grant Avenue, and at Footwise, the Birkenstock Store, downtown, 301 SW Madison Ave, Corvallis Environmental Center, 214 SW Monroe Ave and at Your Green Home,160 NW Jackson Ave.

9-11AM     Solar Electric Workshop at Corvallis Public Library. More info at: http://solaroregon.org
12-5PM      Green and Solar Tour

[edit] SOLAR CREEK History

[edit] Early Beginings

Solar CREEK started out as simply a question. "Would it be possible for us to put a PV array on our schools, but have it owned collectively by those willing to pay a small premium for the right to have virtual ownership of the environmental benefits of the system?". The answer was YES, but nobody had done this in a way that leveraged all the available incenties outside of perhaps Europe.

• Apr 2003   Jack Dymond Begins Work to Get solar on CVHS
• Sep 2003   Jack Dymond drowns while fishing the Rogue River
• Sep 2003   Jack Dymond's article appears in Corvallis Gazette Times
• Oct 2004   Solar CREEK is formed to continue the vision
• Nov 2004   Presentation at Corvallis Public Library to bring solar to Corvallis Schools

[edit] First 3 Solar Power Projects

Solar CREEK's First three projects were on Lincoln Elementary School and both the North and South stores of the First Alternative Food Coop. These systems were installed with the financial help of PEAK SPORTS who retains ownership of these sytems to enable the use of state and federal tax incentives. They were small systems intended to show proof of concept for the finanical and social support model.

• Feb 2004   Solar CREEK applies for demonstration grant from the Energy Trust of Oregon
• Oct 2004   48 brand new 165 watt Matrix solar modules arrived today!
• Oct-2004   2640 watts of solar power are installed on Lincoln School!
• Nov 2004   2640 watts of solar power are installed on First Alternative North Store!
• Nov 2004   2640 watts of solar power are installed on First Alternative South Store!
• Feb 2005   Solar Celebration #1 - over 200 people show up to hear about solar
• Mar 2005   Data Acqusition system is installed
• Jul 2005   Lincoln school roof is replaced (solar array moved)
• Aug 2005   Lincoln School solar array re-installed

[edit] Corvallis Solar Home Tour - 2005

Corvallis joins one of 9 other Oregon cities that host a volunteer based open-house tour of homes with green building and solar energy features. Eight homes were featured in 2005. pictures coming soon

[edit] Crescent Valley High School

The next project was made possible by the owners of Footwised (the Birkenstock store) who were inspired by hearing about the first projects. Using the last available grant funds from the Energy Trust of Oregon, science teachers Adam Kirsch and Mark Baldwin, got CVHS science students to design not only the system but also build a comptuer kiosk to display the performance data gathered from the Lincoln Elementary School (a nearly identical system).

• Oct 2005   Partnership with Footwise (The Birkenstock Store) begins
• Nov 2006   Crescent Valley HS students begin Solar Kiosk design
• Feb 2006   Crescent Valley HS students begin PV design
• Mar 2006   Crescent Valley HS students meet with Consumer's Power Inc
• Jun 2006   Kiosk Design finished (software not completed)
• Jun 2006   2970 watt solar array installed on CVHS!

[edit] Corvallis Solar Home Tour - 2006

pictures coming soon

[edit] MEETING NOTES May 22th, 2007

Celebration Tasks

• Music = George and James
  
• Solar 101 = Christopher
  
• Awards = Jan & George
  
• Movie "Kilowatt Hours" = Cosmo
  
• Invitations = Tom, Dave, Heidi
  
• Media = Holly, James
  
• Fliers, Buttons, etc. = Tom, Joanne?
  
• Tour Flyer = Christopher
  
• Projector = Christopher
  

Solar Tour 2007 Plans
This year's Solar Tour will take place on Saturday October 6th and included both an open house tour during the daytime and and evening presentation on Corvallis' potential to build large scale solar energy systems for all it's public buildings. The presentation will include both an overview of the world PV market and several financial options for the city to leverage State and Federal incentives.

[edit] Workerbees Info

Workerbee files (This link requires a password, please write to mailto:info@solarcreek.org to request access.)