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"With these demonstration projects, we hope more people will become interested in solar technology. They'll be able to see it, touch it and understand how it works. We're working with a solar equipment collaborative to keep our costs down so we can install larger systems and obtain more electricity."

- Doug Bechtel, General Manager, Orcas Power and Light Cooperative

 
 

Orcas Solar

Project Partners:
Orcas Power and Light (OPALCO)
Location:
All four OPALCO sites are located on the San Juan Islands, WA:
  • Friday Harbor Office
  • Lopez Community Center
  • Westsound Marina
  • Windermere Office
Capacity:
3.6 kW
Type of Power:
Solar
Placed into Service:
January 2005

Project Links:
OPALCO

Residents of the San Juan Islands were the first electric cooperative members in Washington State to buy green power from renewable resources. In partnership with BEF (and using a $37,000 BEF grant), Orcas Power and Light installed four distributed solar demonstration units on three of the islands to show the potential for eventually displacing imported power supplies. The local public utility has developed a program to link these new units with other local, on-island small scale residential solar and integrate all systems into its multi-island power grid. The Orcas installations included the first use of solar "shingles" in the Pacific Northwest - cells that replace conventional roofing shingles to provide weather protection and solar power.

  

 
 
Technical Details

Product Supplied:
Solar electricity to Orcas Power and Light Cooperative.
Equipment:

Friday Harbor Office: OPALCO maintains three offices throughout San Juan County. During the planning stages of the project, it was decided that one of the project sites should be located at one of OPALCO's offices. The Friday Harbor office was selected because it is one of the busiest offices in the County for member activity. The system is located adjacent to the parking lot of the OPALCO Friday Harbor office. This is a pole-mounted system, which houses 12, 75-watt Siemens modules, model number SP-75; Advanced Energy manufactured the inverter, model number GC-1000 V 1.6

Lopez Community Center: Located at the outskirts of the Lopez Village, the Lopez Community Center provided a high visibility area for the project. Lopez Island residents were very excited and supportive of the project. The installation is a ground-mounted array consisting of 12, 75-watt Siemens modules, model number SP-75; Advanced Energy manufactured the inverter, model number GC-1000 V 1.6

Westsound Marina: Located in beautiful Westsound Bay on Orcas Island, the array is located directly above the floatplane dock. The installation is a pole-mounted system, which houses 12, 75-watt Siemens modules, model number SP-75; Advanced Energy manufactured the inverter, model number GC-1000 V 1.6

Windermere Office: The Windermere Real Estate Building is located in the heart of downtown Eastsound Village on Orcas Island. This system differs from the other three sites in that the solar panels have been integrated into the roofing composition. Roofing shingles manufactured by Uni-Solar were used for this installation; Advanced Energy manufactured the inverter, model number GC-1000 V 1.6