A final Solarize Harrisonburg Information Session will be held on Tuesday, October 21, 6 PM at the Massanutten Regional Library, 174 S. Main St., Harrisonburg. Get your questions answered. Everyone welcome!
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Solarize Harrisonburg Information Session Monday, July 28, 6 PM at the Massanutten Regional Library, 174 S. Main St., Harrisonburg. Everyone welcome!
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Many thanks to Anya Schoolman, Ivy Main, Tom Benevento, and Richard Baugh for their inspiring presentations, and to everyone who came out to the June 2 forum to start learning about how we can boost solar power in Harrisonburg!
Email contactcaav [at] gmail.com to get on an email list to stay informed about how we may continue organizing to make this happen.
Community Power Network has set up a webpage for our Solarize Harrisonburg efforts through the VASUN citizens network site. Sign up to go solar! Bookmark the site to stay informed about our progress!
Check out some of the conservative cost figures based on Solarize Blacksburg provided by Anya here.
Read Ivy’s Where are the Renewables? Wind and solar policy in Virginia, some of which she covered in her presentation on June 2.
“Like” Solarize Harrisonburg on facebook!
See CAAV steering committee member Joy Loving’s Open Forum opinion piece in the Daily News-Record as published on June 19, 2014: It’s Time to Solarize Homes. Joy has agreed to take the lead for CAAV on next steps for our area solarize effort. She is communicating with Anya Schoolman of Community Power Network and reaching out to interested parties. Contact her to get involved with leadership on this project at jal_1998 [at] yahoo.com.
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If you’ve been thinking about getting your own rooftop solar panels but have held off because of the high initial cost, the Climate Action Alliance of the Valley may have a solution for you. We will be exploring the pros and cons of neighborhood solar cooperatives and other solar bulk purchase programs at a meeting on Monday, June 2 at the Massanutten Regional Library, 174 S. Main St., Harrisonburg, from 6-7:30 PM. Speakers will include *Dan Conant of the Community Power Network, Ivy Main from Sierra Virginia and Harrisonburg City Council Member Richard Baugh.
By getting together with others in their community to buy large quantities of the panels cooperatively, residents of Blacksburg and Richmond have been able to cut their purchase and installation costs significantly. Groups like the Community Power Network help educate interested buyers about photovoltaic solar panels and do a survey of each home to determine whether the roof is even suitable for solar. Then they help the group navigate both the bidding for lowest price but high quality panels and installation as well as the necessary arrangements with the local electric utility. All contracts are still between the individual and the installer.
To learn more about this powerful (!) opportunity, please join us to see if we can all help Harrisonburg go solar!
Our forum guests:
*Dan Conant is Virginia and West Virginia Program Director for the Community Power Network, a D.C. based non-profit alliance dedicated to making solar energy accessible and affordable for all communities.
Ivy Main is Chair of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club and an educated voice for renewable energy in VA.
Richard Baugh is a practicing attorney who has served the City of Harrisonburg as Council Member since 2008.
Tom Benevento of the New Community Project in Harrisonburg will provide a brief appeal for the consideration of energy efficiency updates to a home when installing solar energy.
*May 31 update: Anya Schoolman, the Executive Director of Community Power Network and founder of the DC SUN solar co-ops, will be our speaker and representative of CPN instead of Dan Conant. From Dan: “Anya’s a real pioneer when it comes to community solar programs (she was just named one of President Obama’s ‘Solar Champions of Change’). …Anya was going to be passing through Harrisonburg on the way to SW VA on Monday … so we thought it would be good for her to give the solar co-op presentation in my stead. Don’t worry–she’s an upgrade over me in any case! She’ll be able to talk about her personal experience forming co-ops all around DC.”
Climate Action Alliance of the Valley 