The mayor said he the U.S. lack of a national energy policy for energy independence “is an embarrassment,” and he would lobby congress to establish one. Regardless of any national change in policy for energy or capping carbon emissions, Adams said Portland will meet its goals. The long term goal “is to wean Portland entirely off of [coal power plants],” according to Adams.
Despite its reputation for rainy weather, Portland receives about an average amount of sunlight annually. The consistently clear days throughout the summer and early fall make up for the long winters with overcast skies. Portland will communicate to residents that despite the weather, installing solar is a viable option.
Since the inaugural DOE grant, Portland has streamlined the permitting process for solar so that applications can be approved in a single day, and the fee for residential solar was reduced to $100, according to Lee Rahr, Portland’s Solar Program Coordinator. For commercial solar installations, the cost of the inverters and solar panels have been removed from the cost of equipment which is used to calculate the permitting fee, which can lower business fees by up to 80 percent She added that Portland recently issued a 1.5 megawatt request for proposal to add solar to eight public facilities.
Portland residents will soon be able to see who in their neighborhood has installed solar. Partly funded by the DOE grant, the city has hired consultancy C2HM Hill to develop a solar map that shows every commercial and residential solar installation in the city.
"Portland will communicate to residents that despite the weather, installing solar is a viable option."
With 222 cloudy days a year, solar power in Portland seems marginal at best, a joke at worst.
I guess Seattle would be even worse – this is just another fool politician chattering while pissing away public funds. I suppose he will get invited to all the green parties though.
Portland would be far better off to place the panels East of the Cascade mountains if nothing else.
I lived there for many years – forget seeing the sun from late December until June except on rare occasions. In about 63 there were 30 straight days of sunshine in April & May – everyone thought the world was coming to an end!