Enrollment is now open in Thurston County for one of Washington’s largest community solar projects. The 100-kW Hummingbird Project will be located atop the Hands on Children’s Museum in downtown Olympia and installed in November 2020. The project features 297 SunPower solar panels and a 100-kW SolarEdge inverter.
The Hummingbird Community Solar Project has 800 solar units available for purchase. Each unit costs $300 and allows individuals, businesses and organizations to own a piece of the solar project. You can purchase units for yourself, for a friend, or donate them to a non-profit. Each year Olympia Community Solar will send you the value of your unit’s electricity production. Once you are paid back for your units, the project will be donated to the museum.
Over the 40-year life of the project, it will save the Hand’s On Children’s Museum more than $500,000 in electricity costs. The museum plans to install a clean energy educational exhibit to teach children and their families about the benefits of solar energy.
“Hummingbird” was inspired by a story told by Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan social, environmental and political activist. One day a terrible fire broke out in a forest. Frightened, all the animals fled their homes and ran from the forest. As they came to safety at the edge of a stream they stopped to watch the fire and they were feeling very discouraged and powerless. They were all bemoaning the destruction of their homes when a little hummingbird flew out of the woods. It swooped into the stream and picked up a drop of water and flew away to put it on the fire. The other animals watched in disbelief and one asked “What are you doing?” And the hummingbird looked back and said, “I am doing what I can.” The solar project is named Hummingbird because it’s something we each can do.
News item from Olympia Community Solar
KATRINA TAYLOR says
Thank you for sharing this good news! This is such an admirable effort by the visionary people at Olympia Community Solar and The Hands On Children’s Museum who really care about the future.