Oregon’s largest transit agency (Trimet) covers most of the Portland metropolitan area and will soon unveil a greening of mass transit with a new solar panel power project that is expected to generate as much as 65,000 kilowatt hours of energy per year.
Trimet say’s the 253 panel solar grid will provide power back to the grid for lighting to the south terminus near the Portland State University and to a couple of light rail buildings that are used by the agency. Trimet is a major consumer of energy in the region and is hoping that this pilot project will help with understanding how to design and engineer renewable energy projects that can be used to power the system in the future. The solar panels will be purchased and manufactured by local businesses from Hillsboro, Oregon based Solarworld.
I personally think this entire project is a great thing that will hopefully act as a model of renewable energy projects not only in the Portland region but around the country. This is not a huge scale project but small beginnings can lead to amazing things. I also really like the fact that not only is this project going right in step with the ideals of the region as far as sustainablity goes but Trimet is also purchasing local which in turn supports local green jobs.
Trimet transit agency in the Portland Metro region is not the first transit agency to install solar panel arrays as a means to reduce energy costs long term and to reduce air pollution. NYC Transit began installing solar panels in the 1990′s. One PV system was built as on the roof of a Bus Depot, collecting clean green energy with a 300kW system in the Bronx. It is one of the largest PV installations on the East Coast. Another solar array popped on a 100kW rooftop system on New Corona Car Washer and Maintenance Facility in Queens. Yet another PV canopy over the Stillwell Ave. Subway Terminal in Brooklyn is churning out 250kW of green energy. All these projects combined are still just the beginning of a brighter future in terms of energy use. Solar projects are becoming more and more popular because the prices are still coming down.
In Toledo, Ohio, the transit agency there (TARTA) was awarded a $1 million dollar grant to install a solar panel array to reduce operating cost on energy. Although, most people on the ToledoBlade.com in the comments section seemed to think the grant was a total waste of money, the fact is that solar energy savings will result faster than most people think and it’s reducing dirty energy consumption.
The price of solar energy is actually decreasing so rapidly that some solar energy manufacturers in the United States can’t keep up with the dropping prices and make a profit. We’ve all heard of the Solyndra bankruptcy. Chinese solar manufacturers are flooding the US market and driving costs down. In theory, competition benefits consumers, but local solar manufacturers (Solar World in Hillsoro, Oregon) are fighting back with a US trade complaint.
Regardless of the politics and the mis-information about solar energy, it will continue to be a part of the electric grid in years to come. Transit agencies and governments have important roles in transitioning to a fossil fuel free energy and hopefully we see more these projects come online.
Photo Credit: Some rights reserved by Steve Allen – The Environmental Blog
