OSEIA wanted to take a minute to thank North Coast Electric for their tremendous leadership and support for Oregon’s Solar Industry. Over the past few years we have seen the industry grow and with it North Coast Electric’s participation is outstanding.

The OSEIA members spoke for the industry in February 2016 through electing Kendra to yet another term as a board member. Additionally, the OSEIA Board of Directors made it clear who they wanted to lead us by voting in Kendra as our Vice President!

OSEIA’s technical training program is a huge part of our mission to support the solar industry, not only in Oregon but throughout the Pacific Northwest. North Coast Electric’s participation in hosting these trainings throughout locations in Oregon and Washington has been invaluable to us; we are excited to expand and continue this relationship in 2017.

The Oregon Solar Energy Conference is OSEIA’s biggest fundraising, training and networking event. We have grown from 171 attendees in 2014 to over 400 attendees in 2016. North Coast Electric’s support at the Presenting Sponsor level in 2016 was another testament to your commitment to our success.

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I have a book on my office bookshelf called the “Alternative Energy Sourcebook 1991.” It’s a catalog of sorts from the Real Goods Trading Corporation that offers solar modules and any number of micro-hydro and other renewable systems. So I’ve had a long-standing interest in solar and renewable energy.

I keep it around to remind myself how far we’ve come in terms of the technology and the capacity to serve as a real energy resource. I didn’t get a chance to actually work on renewable energy until I came back to Oregon in 1998 to work for the Citizens’ Utility Board of Oregon (CUB). CUB represents residential ratepayers and while most consumer advocates are just focused on energy as a pocketbook issue, CUB also looks at energy from the perspective of Oregonians’ values. Oregonians care where their energy comes from, they want to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy, they want clean up our energy grid.

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Click here to read January 2017 Oregon Solar Review

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This article is part of an ongoing series of interviews for my exclusive column on Thriving Culture. The intention of this series is to give you, as a reader, a sense of where and how culture is thriving in the solar industry, and how you might begin to strengthen company culture in your own company or place of business. I conducted this interview with Kelli Wolford, Office Manager at Synchro Solar, which currently employs 10 solar team members with 2 solar install teams.

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Projects totaling 291 megawatts have applied for the state’s new Solar Development Incentive Program — but only 150 megawatts will get in.

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My name is Abigail Ross Hopper, and if you haven't heard, I just officially started as SEIA's new President & CEO. It's only been a few days, but I am already so excited to be a part of such a great organization and an incredible industry.

To better introduce myself, I recorded a short video. Take a look:

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With a $1.5 billion state budget shortfall, and solar incentives to protect, we'll need all the help we can in the Oregon legislature this year. The session starts in less than two weeks! If you’ve been wondering, “how can I help grow solar in Oregon?”, then please volunteer for the following:

1.Mark your calendars for Solar Lobby Day in Oregon's Capitol, Monday, April 17th. Join us for a day in Oregon’s capitol. No experience is necessary and we need every member of Oregon’s solar community to join us if they can.

2.Join OSEIA's Online Solar Rapid Response Team. We'll need at least 100 solar pros and supporters to spend less than five minutes weekly responding to our calls for help from the legislature. Can you send an email or "like" a facebook page? Then we need YOU for our Solar Army.

We’ve currently less than a dozen volunteers out of 100+ we’ll need for each. So please sign up now.

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Thanks to generous contributions from OSEIA members and solar supporters, Oregon SolarPAC raised $9,845 ahead of the 2017 election--and spent nearly all of it exactly as we'd planned: in support of key candidates for the Oregon State Legislature.

We held meetings and made campaign contributions to Oregon's Governor, Kate Brown and 14 legislative candidates, all of whom won their 2017 elections and are now serving in Salem. Several OSEIA members joined in our candidate meetings, where we discussed issues crucial to Oregon's solar industry: Renewing the Residential Energy Tax Credit (RETC), creating a RETC for community solar, preserving the solar property tax exemption, and ensuring the Oregon's new large scale solar incentive will work as planned.

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Why homeowners need technology that delivers more than code compliance

by Tefford Reed -- Every three years brings a revision to the National Electrical Code, a benchmark for electrical safety in the US. One by one, the states interpret those changes to help local permitting authorities decide whether a rooftop solar project meets safety standards. Technology designed to code is likely to require costly and time-consuming upgrades as code changes. A modular, low-voltage technology, like the Enphase Microinverter System, inherently satisfies code requirements year after year.

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My solar story started at Southern Oregon University (SOU) in 2010. I went back to school because I had recently become a father and wanted to set a good example for my son. I was a business major but began taking environmental studies classes. The classes focused on environmental problems, which are daunting, but I wanted to come up solutions. I decided to minor in environmental studies, focusing when possible on courses in corporate sustainability. The Summer of 2011, I had the opportunity to study renewable energy in Germany. Although the course was less than a month long, the impacts had a lasting effect on my education and engagement on campus.

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It’s Been a Year Already?

February 1, 2016 was a busy day for me. It was my first day working for OSEIA, I had a board meeting, it was the first day of the 2016 legislative session and for the first time in over 17 years, I was the new guy.

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