‘Community solar park’: State hopes Ellensburg idea takes off
LEAH BETH WARD | YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC | December 13, 2009
ELLENSBURG – Gary Nystedt was brainstorming with a group of colleagues at a solar energy conference a few years ago when the idea hit him.
What if Ellensburg put up solar panels in a park and invited residents to invest in the system? As a return on their investment in clean energy, residents would get a credit on their electric bill.
JACKIE JOHNSTON/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Gary Nystedt, Ellenburg’s resource manager, talks about the city’s new solar project. East of the Cascade Range, utilities are seeing potential in sunshine and enlisting residents’ help to buy solar panels.
Nystedt, resource manager for the city of Ellensburg — which owns the local electric and gas utilities — enlisted the support of his boss. The City Council in turn got behind the effort.
With help from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation and Washington State University’s Northwest Solar Center, Ellensburg launched in 2006 what is believed to be the first “community solar park” in the country, putting the already progressive municipal utility on the leading edge of getting power to the people.
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