Portland's grass-roots volume-discount program jumpstarts neighborhood solar
Hillsboro, Ore., June 28, 2010 – SolarWorld is on track to supply about 1 MW of high-performance solar panels this year through a nation-leading, volunteer-driven, low-cost program that enables Oregon residents to more easily and affordably put solar power systems on their rooftops.
Under the Solarize program, Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability and Energy Trust of Oregon, a nonprofit promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy, support groups of residents as they join together to secure volume pricing for buying and installing solar power systems.
Two installation partners – Mr. Sun Solar for the Solarize resident group in Southwest Portland and Imagine Energy for Southeast Portland – each expect to install more than 400 kilowatts of high-quality SolarWorld Sunmodules on homes. In a separate Solarize program orchestrated by the Eastern Oregon city of Pendleton, Livelight Energy expects to install more than 175 kilowatts of Sunmodules. In all, SolarWorld’s monocrystalline photovoltaic product will provide power to about 425 homes.
In Hillsboro, located west of Portland, SolarWorld operates the largest solar technology factory in the Americas. There, the company is culminating an expansion to reach annual production capacity of 500 MW and 1,000 employees by year’s end.
"Solarize Portland reflects the best spirit of Portland’s DIY, grassroots commitment to sustainability," said Mayor Sam Adams. "That this program would be able to count SolarWorld – a big part of the Portland region's burgeoning solar technology industry – as a participant and supplier only strengthens Portland's, and my, commitment to fusing environmental sustainability with economic prosperity."
Kevin Kilkelly, SolarWorld's president of U.S. sales, said SolarWorld's top-rated performance and domestic production maximize the sustainable impact of the grass-roots program. "The spread of high-performance, domestically manufactured solar into the very U.S. neighborhoods where residents will use the power fulfills the highest promise of power from the sun," Kilkelly said.
About SolarWorld AG
The SolarWorld AG Group (ISIN: DE0005108401) is a worldwide leader in offering brand-name, high-quality, crystalline solar-power technology. Its strength is its fully integrated solar production. From silicon as the raw material through wafers, cells and modules all the way to turn-key solar systems, including recycling, the group combines all stages of the solar value chain. The central business activity is selling quality modules into the wholesale trade and crystalline wafers to the international solar cell industry. Group headquarters are located in Bonn, Germany. Production sites are to be found in Germany, the United States and South Korea. The largest production facilities are operated by the group in Freiberg, Germany, and Hillsboro, Ore. Sustainability is the basis of the group strategy. Under the name Solar2World, the group supports care projects using off-grid solar power solutions in emerging economies and developing countries, exemplifying sustainable economic development. Worldwide, SolarWorld employs more than 2,700 people. Since 1999, SolarWorld AG has been quoted on the stock exchange on the technology index TecDAX, ÖkoDAX, Dow Jones STOXX 600, the international MSCI Index as well as in the sustainability indices DAXglobal Alternative Energy and NAI.
www.solarworld-usa.com
Media Contact:
Ben Santarris
Public affairs manager
SolarWorld
25300 N.W. Evergreen Road
Hillsboro, OR 97124
Mobile: 503 927 9858
Office: 503 693 5189
ben.santarris(at)solarworld-usa.com
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