Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Oregon Department of Transportation Going Solar!

The Oregon Department of Transportation is an agency on the move – to renewable energy. It takes 45 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually to run Oregon’s state transportation system, energy used for signals, illumination, buildings, ramp metering and more, at a cost last year of more than $4 million. Today this energy comes from mostly non-renewable sources, but change is coming. Most highways and free ways could easily utilized to generate solar energy as they are access to large amount of real estate that mostly receive Solar light through out the year. We reported earlier, Venezuela lighting up street lights with Solar energy.




On Feb. 21, 2008, the Oregon Transportation Commission directed ODOT’s Office of Innovative Partnerships to develop a procurement for up to 2 megawatts of solar energy on ODOT properties, including along the state highway right of way and the interstate system. Leading the way will be the Oregon Solar Highway demonstration project, a public-private partnership with Portland General Electric and US Bank, to build the first-in-the-nation solar array in a freeway interchange. Groundbreaking took place Aug. 7, 2008. Physical construction is expected to begin in mid-September.

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