You can help buy a solar array for the Hands On Children’s Museum
Olympia residents interested in solar power now have the opportunity to buy into the market at a fraction of the cost.
Olympia Community Solar (OCS), a nonprofit founded in 2018 to support community solar education and policy, recently opened enrollment in The Hummingbird Project, a community-funded array of solar panels to be installed on the roof of the Hands On Children’s Museum that will save the museum hundreds of thousands of dollars over the 40-year life of the panels.
Individuals or groups, including businesses and other nonprofits, can purchase individual solar units for $300 apiece, an amount that OCS will pay back to buyers each year based on the amount of energy generated by their units until the full purchase price has been refunded.
Buyers also can take advantage of federal tax credits or donate the refunds to local nonprofits. Once the total cost of about $240,000 is paid off, OCS will donate the solar array to the museum.
“When people purchase it, they’re purchasing the production of that one unit for that system’s lifetime,” OCS President Mason Rolph said. “When the system generates energy each year, we calculate what each person has generated and send them a check for that value.
“Right now, our goal is to fully fund the system by the time the project is installed, but we also have flexibility in our legal agreements to where we have until August of next year if we need to push it back installation.”
Each unit will prevent the release of about 150 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, according to Rolph. He likened the idea to that of a community garden, where individuals are responsible for a small plot within the larger landscape over the course of the season, then share in the communal benefits.
Olympia Mayor Cheryl Selby praised the work of OCS to use a model for the solar project that eliminates the major cost barrier that prohibits most people from putting panels on their own buildings or residences. The city leased space on the museum roof to OCS last August to allow for the plan to go forward.
“This is just a great story of partnership around our climate goals and also helping a community asset be ready for the next 40 years,” Selby said. “The Children’s Museum is a keystone of our downtown and even though it’s not open for our enjoyment right now, it will be in the future, and it’s showing our community that we’re not letting the COVID crisis slow us down on important projects.”
The inspiration for the project came from a unique source far outside the Olympia city limits.
Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai often told the story of a hummingbird that used its beak to carry small amounts of water to help put out a forest fire. When other animals asked what the bird was doing, it replied, “I am doing what I can.”
Maathai, who in 2004 became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, used the story to illustrate how minor actions taken in the face of a major challenge such as climate change combine to have a significant impact.
“Our whole organization is all young 20-something year olds who are motivated to address the climate crisis,” Rolph said. “We did a couple surveys prior to releasing the offer, and people said by far that they wanted to do it for climate reasons. The second-highest reason was because they could participate at a lower cost than what it would take to get traditional solar on their homes.”
Work is slated to start this summer in conjunction with planned repairs to the museum roof. Workers will put a metal roof on the building at the same time they install the solar panels, which will clip onto the building to form an array capable of generating 196 megawatt hours (about 200,000 kilowatt hours) of electricity per year.
Patti Belmonte, executive director of the Hands On Children’s Museum, said it is important to do both projects at the same time to ensure compatibility and so that both the roof and the array last for the same amount of time.
“We designed the building intentionally for solar panels,” Belmonte said. “What happened in the early years is when we went to put solar on the building, we didn’t qualify for some of the grants available for solar projects because the building was already so energy efficient. That was a surprise to us, because we had designed the building with the roof so we could demonstrate the power of solar. We’re delighted to be at this place now to be part of a community solar project.”
Besides the estimated savings of about $12,000 per year on energy costs the museum will enjoy once the panels are paid off, the solar array will be used for educational programming put on by the museum.
Solar energy has been a component of the summer slate of activities at the museum since it opened its current Jefferson Street location in 2012. Belmonte highlighted examples such as solar ovens that can provide portable demonstrations of solar power.
Museum staff are working to find additional funding to construct a station inside the building that features the rooftop installation. Belmonte said the plan since 2012 has been to connect the solar panels to a display in the museum lobby that shows the amount of energy being generated in real time.
The museum will be a primary driver of support and outreach for the project — it has purchased more than 10 shares as of last week, according to Belmonte. The low price point is in line with the nonprofit’s goal of making science and art education accessible to all community members, though it won’t be for at least another month or two.
“Obviously, we’re in a very challenging time right now because our community is trying to deal with the COVID-19 situation, so it’s not the best time to push that out,” Belmonte said. “We believe there’s a lot of interest and we’ve been told by supporters of the museum that there is that interest.
“We think in another few months when we have a better view of the COVID situation, it will be a good time to share the project more widely with museum supporters,” she said.
For more information and to enroll in The Hummingbird Project, visit www.olysol.org
This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 5:45 AM.