Solar panels on the roof of Portland's Southwest Community Center were paid for through the city's Solar Forward program.
Courtesy of Portland Parks and Recreation
The City of Portland announced a new solar project Tuesday that's only half paid for -- a big reason for all the fanfare surrounding its unveiling.
The project itself isn't all that cutting edge; it's a $50,000 photovoltaic system that will offset the electricity costs at a local elementary school and put more renewable energy on the power grid.
What's unusual, city leaders say, is their attempt to raise half the money for it through crowdsourcing.
Mayor Charlie Hales said he thinks Portlanders who want to see more renewable energy in the city will step up and help pay for the rest of the project.
"If you look at how many Portlanders have gone ahead and installed solar panels on their homes, you see continued strong interest in this," Hales said. "We're using crowdsourcing, but also we're taking advantage of the fact that we have all these public buildings that are great locations for solar."
It's the first time the city is attempting to crowdsource the funding for a solar project through its Solar Forward program. It may be an even bigger first.
"We are probably the first city-led crowdsourcing program for solar," program manager Andria Jacob.
A growing number of communities across the country are pooling their resources to invest in shared solar power projects. But utility rules in Oregon prevent some funding models from working. The idea behind Portland's Solar Forward program is to offer people a way to support renewable energy in their community.
The new solar project proposed for Oliver P. Lent Elementary School is one of many sites Jacob has in mind for future crowdsourcing.
"There are community centers, dozens and dozens of schools, libraries, lots of public buildings that can't do solar on their own," she said. "There are lots of people who can't do solar on their own. So this is a collective effort to do this on public buildings that people love and use together with their families."
