Washington State School for the Blind

Project Partners: Clark Public Utilities, Washington State School for the Blind, Terra Architecture PC Location: Vancouver, WA Capacity: 13.5 kW Type of Power: Solar Placed into Service: August 2003 Project Links: The Ogden Resource Center Washington State School for the Blind

The Ogden Resource center is a new building on the Washington State School for the Blind (WSSB) campus. It serves as Washington's K-12 instructional resource center for blind and visually impaired children. The building integrates many sustainable elements, including the only modular earthroof on the west coast, photovoltaic solar, daylighting, onsite stormwater management, and a bioswale planter. No other Washington state-owned building has a system of this nature. The state of Washington uses photovoltaics in several applications, mainly on roadway projects and remote installations. The Ogden Resource center serves as a test for large scale, state-owned buildings.

The system is currently one of the largest building-dedicated systems in the Northwest, based on kW of power generated per square feet of building space. BEF purchases the Renewable Energy Certificates from the school and sells them to Clark County PUD and other BEF Renewable Energy Certificate customers. WSSB provides the community with a renewable source of electricity and offsets some of its operating expenses with the money earned from the sale.