City of Beaverton's Investment in Renewable Energy Reaps Dividends

The City of Beaverton has, under Mayor Denny Doyle, established itself as a regional leader and innovator in the field of renewable energy. Now, with the program launch of Solar Beaverton, a community program that offers Beaverton residents education on and tax incentives for consumer solar energy projects, the City of Beaverton is demonstrating that investments in green energy do indeed pay off.

Driven by the results of a successful 2010 Beaverton pilot program that offered solar system incentives to 50 Beaverton homes, Mayor Doyle directed his sustainability team to develop a city-wide program to stimulate the installation of solar technology and promote the use of renewable energy while supporting local jobs in the Beaverton community. Solar Beaverton was born.

Unlike its pilot project predecessor, Solar Beaverton goes beyond incentives for solar electric systems to also cover solar hot water, solar attic fans, charging stations and home energy assessments. In a competitive bidding process, Solar Beaverton partnered with LiveLight Energy, LLC, a family-owned Beaverton, Oregon solar design and installation company. LiveLight exclusively uses solar panels from Hillsboro based SolarWorld.

Solar Beaverton was launched on March 1, 2011, and has produced immediate returns. In that short time, Solar Beaverton has already generated 12 new jobs, 10 of which are fulltime, family wage jobs complete with benefits. As Beaverton makes designs to fit the Beaverton City Library with solar panels as a participant in Oregon's Solar Feed-In Tariff program (FIT), and moves forward with plans to erect a solar canopy for its famous Farmer's Market that will feed the parking lots three electric vehicle charging stations, more jobs from green investment may be on the way.

"Solar panels continue to go up around the state, and I'm glad Solar Beaverton is the largest solar project running in the State of Oregon. As a Beaverton legislator, I take particular pride in the Beaverton Library, home of our town hall meetings, so I'm especially pleased that solar panels are going up on top of the book stacks. And as one of the authors of the FIT pilot program, I'm proud that the Library will be a participant in the FIT. Let's keep up the momentum to strengthen Oregon's energy independence while we build our economy," said Representative Tobias Read, co-chair of the House Transportation and Economic Development Committee and House Democratic Whip.

Strategies 360 represents leaders in renewable energy throughout Oregon, including the City of Beaverton. Solar Beaverton is only one of many examples of the economic, environmental and community benefits of green investment that exist throughout the state. Strategies 360 will continue working to ensure that Oregon leaders harness clean, renewable energy and make it the vehicle for Oregon's successful economic future.