NW Solar

A couple weeks ago I went to the NW Solar Expo in Portland. I was really struck by how solar is a commercial reality today. The expo was all about how to get solar electric or water heating today. It still takes governmental assistance to make it financially reasonable, but that’s a smart investment in the future in a number of ways.
This weekend we were in Bend and they were having a tour of local homes that demonstrate solar and other green building options. Unfortunately we weren’t able to do the tour because we didn’t have time and it looks like we missed the similar local tours here last month.
This winter I’m going to try to spec out a solar electric system for my home usage, get quotes to figure out the up front price and estimate the cost in the end after all the incentives have rolled in. And presumably I’ll then need to figure out whether I can get one of the state’s energy investment loans to cover the up front investment. After a few years and all the incentives it doesn’t sound like it has to amount to an unreasonable cost, but there is a substantial up front cost before the incentives.
IEEE’s Spectrum magazine has an article on this topic. It highlights California’s push, but at the end mentions that Oregon has just started some major funding as well. For our state it really makes sense as investment in fostering local high-tech industry and energy independence, not to mention the environmental positives.