The Alliance for Renewable Energy of Laramie (ARE) led the Second Annual Laramie Solar Tour on Saturday, Oct. 1st, to educate Laramie citizens on the power and potential of solar energy.
“Our goal with the Solar Tour is really to educate members of the public and inspire them to do what they can with their businesses, their homes, their organizations, and their community to help Wyoming reach its full solar potential,” Conor Mullen, interim president of ARE, said.
The tour, which lasted for nearly 4 hours, consisted of eight stops throughout Laramie where members of ARE and solar power pioneers within the community demonstrated unique facets of solar energy.
The tour’s stops included Laramie Fire Department Station #3, the Laramie Recreation Center, and the Downtown Clinic, which were all recipients of grants from Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky Grant Program that helped fund installation of solar panels.
Other stops included the Trihydro Corporation and 4 residential houses equipped with solar panels.
“This tour was nice because we had an expert from Rocky Mountain Power talk about how you can get a Blue Sky grant if you’re a government [or non-profit] agency, and residents talked about their journeys with solar,” said Finn Jackson, a local resident who graduated from UW last year.
The American Solar Energy Society sponsors Solar Tours all over the United States, and worked in Union with ARE to provide the Laramie Solar Tour. The Sierra Club and Powder River Basin Resource Council also provided aid.
Throughout the day the number of participants at the tour varied, but generally hovered around 15 people.
Tour participants carpooled or cycled from stop to stop, and for those unable to attend in person, the discussions at each stop were livestreamed on the ARE Facebook page.
ARE has high hopes for Wyoming’s solar future.
“Wyoming, last year, sat somewhere in the top 10 states in the US in terms of what you can do with solar, and we’re not taking advantage of that,” Mullen said. “We have a great resource here.”
Members of ARE hope that by educating the public about solar energy they can help usher in a future in which Wyoming is able to economically thrive producing renewable energy.
“The writing’s on the wall looking at the economic side. We have communities that are in a vulnerable or precarious kind of place. A very large amount of our state’s budget comes from fossil fuels; we can’t do that forever,” Mullen said. “So let’s strike while the iron’s hot.”
Article was edited on 10/06/2022 to correct the print of a misquote.
