Modesto Junior College Project Green and Solar Everywhere will host the Second Annual Solar Fair on Saturday, October 4, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Church of the Brethren, 2301 Woodland Avenue in Modesto. The event is free and open to the public.
The fair, held in conjunction with the American Solar Energy Society’s (ASES) National Solar Tour, features a gathering of eleven local solar companies and two financial institutions with special loan programs for solar. Information on ASES’s solar tour is available at http://www.ases.org/solar-tour/.
Modesto Irrigation District’s Mike Zweifel and Pacific Gas & Electric’s Pete Shoemaker will be available during the fair to advise homeowners and business owners on whether solar can work for them. Some Solar Everywhere homeowners will also be on hand to report their personal experiences with solar.
Interested residents are invited to bring their last 12 months of electric bills and roof data such as shading and pitch, in order to obtain a clear idea of the costs and benefits of tapping into their rooftop’s solar potential.
Modesto has over 29,000 residential rooftops that could accommodate solar panels and the surrounding communities have thousands more, according to a Department of Energy study published in 2012. A 30% federal tax credit for rooftop solar continues to be available.
Brief tours of the Church of the Brethren’s 200-panel solar array will be offered throughout the morning. The Church’s PV system generated nearly 100 megawatt-hours of electricity its first year of service. The Church is located on Woodland Ave. about a mile west of Highway 99. Enter by the west driveway off Woodland.
Additional information on the Solar Fair and Solar Everywhere is available online at http://www.solareverywhere.org/#!solarfair2014/c1epi. Additional information on MJC’s Project Green is available online at http://www.mjc.edu/president/cep/projectgreen.php and a brief video is available at
