Solar barnraisings are neighbors and friends getting together to install solar on people's homes. In the last solar boom, the 1970s, people all over the country gto together to build solar air heaters, install solar hot water and electric panels, and remodel south-facing porches into greenhouses and sunspaces. Seems that energy is coming around again.
One group doing this today is Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Inititative in Plymouth, NH. They have about 125 members and have completed over 38 solar installations. They plan regular "energy raisings" throughout the year.
Coop Power in Greenfield, MA is beginning to do the same thing. They are planning solar barnraisings with a sweat equity component over the next few months. Here's an article on Coop Power's solar hot water barnraising plans:
http://www.recorder.com/...
I know of these new efforts because Mem from Somerville invited me to a meeting at Alternatives for Community and Environment to hear a presentation by Coop Power. Thanks, Mem!
ACE is devoted to environmental justice, organizing the Transit Rider's Union and working to monitor and reduce pollution levels in low income and minority communities. Coop Power is a consumer-owned energy cooperative serving New York and New England. They offer members lower prices on energy efficient products and services and have leveraged $207,137 in member equity from 286 members and 3,800 supporters into a return of $346,939 in tax benefits and incentives alone. They did this by installing 24 solar hot water systems and another 22 renewable energy systems generating more than 60 kilowatts of electricity, another benefit for those who are not looking only at money. They are also planning a biodiesel plant which uses waste vegetable oil as a feedstock and will employ 25 people.
ACE and Coop Power are discussing the businesses, products, and jobs that will support families but also speed the ecological transition away from oil, gas, and coal, the carbon fuels. There's a lot of talk these days about green jobs, this discussion was to make sure that at least some of them are locally owned and operated. It is a nation-wide concern with Van Jones of Oakland being one of the most visible spokespeople on the issue.
The Boston area already has many locally owned and operated renewable energy installations and Andy Stern gave a presentation on one of them, Hull's municipal wind turbines. Hull has two wind turbines that provide about 13% of the town's annual electrical use and is planning four more turbines off-shore. Andy has been with the project since the beginning. Video of the second wind turbine going up at http://energyvision.blogspot.com/... and the first turbine in operation at http://energyvision.blogspot.com/...
One idea that came out of the meeting was the Energy Services Management Company (ESCO) model - a company that guarantees a set cost and amount of energy below present cost and then installs energy efficiency and renewable measures to produce that energy at a profit. It is a model that works in the commercial and industrial sector, even in terms of solar electricity as Sun Edison shows, and can be a powerful tool to retrofit our existing building stock and provide good-paying, interesting work.
Back in the day, Boston's Urban Solar Energy Association did a lot of solar barnraisings. Some of them are still around. There's one in my neighborhood, an air heater, that may even still be working. How well I don't know. Maybe I should ask the homeowner, after all I've known her for years and it's been too long since I said hello.