The Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association (GLREA) hald their annual meeting at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse last December 8th. The meeting was great and had over 150 people attending. This also included a pre-meeting workshop where SolarYpsi was able to talk about their history and explain some of the techniques for promoting solar and getting systems installed.
For those that were not able to attend, we have a recording of the slide presentation here. Enjoy.
Ypsilanti was published in American Cemetery & Cremation magazine in last August. Thanks to Maggie Brandt and Paula Strenski for writing a great article about the solar project in Highland Cemetery. You can read the article here.
I was updating our database of solar presentations they we have given over the years. In the past 12 years we have given a total of 255 solar presentations and reach over 5400 people in face-to-face meetings. Many as small as one person at the local coffee shop to over a hundred at a weekend festival, farmer market, or events like TEDx and Ignite. I calculate our average at about 20 people per event. Here’s the list (below) if you want to check the math. Drop me a note (Dave@Strenski.com) if you would like me to visit your organization and talk about how solar power can save you money.
| Date | Origanization | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Jan # 2006 | Co-op Open House | 40 |
| Feb # 2006 | Depot Town Association | 10 |
| Mar # 2006 | Washtenaw County Consortium on Waste Management | 12 |
| Mar 11 2006 | Ypsilanti City Council & Historic Commission | 10 |
| May 10 2006 | Metro Detroit Building Superintendent Assocation | 20 |
| Jul 17 2006 | ReCycle Ann Aror | 6 |
| Jul 29 2006 | ReCycle Ann Arbor | 8 |
| Aug 17 2006 | Corner Brewery | 80 |
| Oct 7 2006 | Solar Tour | 10 |
| Nov 29 2006 | Optical Society of America | 40 |
| Dec 6 2006 | Ann Arbor Computer Society | 31 |
| Dec 21 2006 | Cray TechForum (remote) | 12 |
2006 Total of 12 meetings reaching 279 people
| Jan 17 2007 | Pittsfield Union Grange (Dave and Adam) | 15 |
| Jan 24 2007 | Ypsilanti District Library | 25 |
| Jan 26 2007 | ReCycle Ann Arbor (Adam) | 3 |
| Mar 9 2007 | Estabrook 4th grade class (Adam) | 24 |
| Mar 16 2007 | Remodel Green Midwest Conference | 33 |
| Apr 18 2007 | GREEN at EMU (Adam) | 6 |
| Apr 18 2007 | Science Cafe | 31 |
| Apr 24 2007 | Waste Not meeting | 63 |
| Jun 2 2007 | U-M Matthaei Botanical Gardens | 10 |
| Aug 14 2007 | Ypsilanti City Council Meeting | 44 |
| Aug 18 2007 | Ypsilanti Heritage Festival (Adam) | 7 |
| Sep 8 2007 | The Treehouse Energy Efficency | 10 |
| Sep 18 2007 | Ypsilanti Public Library | 4 |
| Sep 26 2007 | Summers-Knoll School 5th grade class | 11 |
| Oct 6 2007 | Solar Tour | 20 |
| Oct 14 2007 | Healing Arts and Green Living Expo | 3 |
| Nov 7 2007 | Normal Park Neighborhood Assocation | 11 |
2007 Total of 17 meetings reaching 320 people
| Mar 15 2008 | Ypsilanti Food Cooperative | 7 |
| Mar 27 2008 | UM Earth Day (Adam and I were rained out) | 0 |
| Apr 17 2008 | WCC Earth Day: Celebrate our Habitat! | 30 |
| Apr 22 2008 | Cenrtal Region Co-op Manager’s meeting | 19 |
| Jun 2 2008 | Estabrook School, Ypsilanti (Adam) | 144 |
| Jul 12 2008 | Ann Arbor Reuse Center | 40 |
| Aug 15 2008 | Ypsilanti Heritage Festival | 16 |
| Aug 30 2008 | Layed off Auto engineers | 2 |
| Sep 22 2008 | Wittenberg University | 37 |
| Sep 23 2008 | University Michigan | 18 |
| Sep 23 2008 | Washtenaw Community College | 15 |
| Oct 4 2008 | Solar Tour | 16 |
| Oct 29 2008 | Crazy Wizdom one-on-one | 1 |
2008 Total of 13 meetings reaching 345 people
| Jan 30 2009 | Crazy Wizdom Book Store | 3 |
| Mar 9 2009 | Transition Michigan | 5 |
| Mar 24 2009 | Ypsi School Dist,Assistant Superintendent staff | 6 |
| Apr 16 2009 | WCC Earth Day. | 17 |
| Apr 24 2009 | One-on-one solar talk with Hans | 1 |
| May 30 2009 | Ypsi Food Coop (Hans) | 3 |
| Jun 3 2009 | Estabrook School (Adam) | 137 |
| Jul 25 2009 | Whole Foods Ann Arbor @ 1:00pm (Hans) | 5 |
| Aug 5 2009 | Ann Arbor Computer Society (Dave+Nik) | 19 |
| Aug 6 2009 | Ann Arbor District Library (Hans) | 21 |
| Aug 14 2009 | Whole Foods Rochester Hills @ 12:00 (Hans) | 8 |
| Aug 21 2009 | Ypsilanti Heritage Festival | 7 |
| Oct 10 2009 | Solar Tour | 14 |
| Oct 17 2009 | Ypsilanti District Library | 11 |
| Nov 19 2009 | Elwell School “Green Expo” | 12 |
2009 Total of 15 meetings reaching 269 people
| Apr 22 2010 | Canton Public Library | 4 |
| Aug 26 2010 | Rebuild Ypsilanti – Ypsilanti District Library | 50 |
| Aug 31 2010 | Dawn Farms one-on-one w/ Brian Ellison | 1 |
| Oct 2 2010 | SolarTour – Ypsi Food Coop | 12 |
| Oct 2 2010 | SolarTour – City Hall | 11 |
| Oct 7 2010 | Concentrate in Ann Arbor | 50 |
| Oct 22 2010 | EMU Student – Giles Tucker | 1 |
2010 Total of 7 meetings reaching 129 people
| Feb 7 2011 | Ypsi Food Coop | 10 |
| Apr 20 2011 | Ypsi Food Coop – staff | 9 |
| Apr 22 2011 | Ypsi Food Coop – staff | 11 |
| Jun 2 2011 | Ypsi DDA | 8 |
| Jun 14 2011 | Lias and Beth | 2 |
| Jun 20 2011 | Ypsilanti library (Google video) | 25 |
| Aug 18 2011 | George Washington University (HPC workshop) | 20 |
| Sep 8 2011 | Whole Foods in Rochester Hills (Hans Steiner) | 10 |
| Sep 9 2011 | Dan Newell one-on-one | 1 |
| Sep 27 2011 | Solar Tour training | 6 |
| Oct 1 2011 | Solar Tour Adams (Bob, Hans) | 6 |
| Oct 1 2011 | Solar Tour Coop/Bakery (Lisa, Keith, Eric, Jon) | 26 |
| Oct 1 2011 | Solar Tour 403 Huron (Tad, Dan) | 14 |
| Oct 1 2011 | Solar Tour City Hall (Dave, Steve) | 16 |
| Oct 1 2011 | Solar Tour Corner Brewery (Garth) | 8 |
| Oct 11 2011 | Stewar Beal one-on-one | 1 |
| Oct 24 2011 | St. Matt & St. Joe Episcopal Church (Detroit) | 20 |
| Oct 28 2011 | Skyline High School Engineering class | 25 |
| Nov 6 2011 | Ignite6 Ann Arbor | 270 |
| Nov 11 2011 | Matt Grocoff | 2 |
| Nov 11 2011 | Google Ann Arbor – TGIF talk | 50 |
| Nov 14 2011 | YpsiFoodCoop – UnvMich students | 3 |
| Nov 29 2011 | Eastern Mich Unv student one-on-one at Ugly Mug | 1 |
| Nov 30 2011 | Eastern Mich Unv CSIE Seminar Series | 50 |
2011 Total of 24 meetings reaching 594 people
| Jan 14 2012 | Westminster Presbyterian Church – Men’s Breakfast | 20 |
| Jan 14 2012 | Ypsilanti Distric Library – Michigan Ave | 25 |
| Feb 15 2012 | Team Detroit | 7 |
| Mar 27 2012 | Eastern Michigan University | 11 |
| Apr 15 2012 | Ypsilanti First United Methodist Church | 23 |
| Apr 20 2012 | Consumer Family Advocate Council (Detroit) | 21 |
| May 12 2012 | Growing Hope’s Ypsi Garden Fair | 12 |
| Jun 23 2012 | Ann Arbor Area Real Estate Investor Club | 12 |
| Aug 17,18,19 | Ypsilanti Heritage Festival (Dave, Steve, Paul) | 800 |
| Oct 11 2012 | Ypsilanti Jaycee walking tour | 8 |
| Oct 17 2012 | Ypsilanti Jaycee meeting | 23 |
| Oct 23 2012 | WiHi International High School A2 physics class | 26 |
| Oct 24 2012 | WiHi International High School B1 physics class | 25 |
| Oct 24 2012 | WiHi International High School B2 physics class | 26 |
| Nov 8 2012 | VNEXT Ann Arbor (Tad Wysor) | 6 |
| Nov 9 2012 | One-on-one with EMU grad student Gilles Renard | 1 |
| Dec 19 2012 | EMU construction professors | 4 |
2012 Total of 17 meetings reaching 1050 people
| Feb 14 2013 | EMU Construction class | 25 |
| Feb 24 2013 | Ann Arbor Friends Meeting (Quakers) | 20 |
| Mar 15 2013 | TEDxEMU | 200 |
| Mar 19 2013 | Michigan Ladder one-on-one | 1 |
| Mar 22 2013 | Stewart Beal one-on-one | 1 |
| Mar 26 2013 | Go Solar Community Forum | 52 |
| Mar 4 2013 | EMU GIS class | 12 |
| May 8 2013 | EMU Summer Science Research Initiative | 50 |
| Jun 26 2013 | Girl Scout Camp | 121 |
| Aug 16,17,18 | Ypsilanti Heritage Festival (Dave, Steve, Amy) | 400 |
| Nov 20 2013 | Ypsilanti Fire Department (shift 1) | 4 |
| Nov 20 2013 | Ypsilanti Fire Department (shift 2) | 4 |
| Nov 20 2013 | Ypsilanti Fire Department (shift 3) | 4 |
2013 Total of 13 meetings reaching 894 people
| Mar 20 2014 | EMU GREEN meeting | 20 |
| Apr 13 2014 | Ypsilanti Fire Chief | 1 |
| Apr 13 2014 | Ypsilanti Historic District Meeting | 20 |
| Jun 27 2014 | X-Ray and Specialty Instruments | 3 |
| Jul 16 2014 | Northend Christian/Greater Woodward CDC | 12 |
| Aug 15,16,17 | Ypsilanti Heritage Festival (Dave, Paul, Amy) | 400 |
| Sep 2 2014 | Ed Berch Ypsi Key Bank | 1 |
| Sep 9 2014 | Mike Kabat Haab’s Restaurant | 1 |
| Oct 4 2014 | Solar Tour | 2 |
2014 Total of 9 meetings reaching 460 people
| Jan 21 2015 | Solar talk at Bona Seri w/ AJ Leo | 45 |
| Feb 11 2015 | Solar talk at ARROW ham radio club | 20 |
| Mar 5 2015 | Solar talk at the Detroit Google Dev Group | 30 |
| Mar 17 2015 | Solar Ribbon Cutting at Corner Health Center | 25 |
| Mar 30 2015 | Solar Ribbon Cutting at Parkridge Community Center | 15 |
| May 15 2015 | Solar Ribbon Cutting at WiHi school | 32 |
| Jun 2 2015 | Solar Ribbon Cutting at Ypsi District Library | 8 |
| Jun 11 2015 | YCS Sustainability Summit | 12 |
| Jun 18 2015 | One-on-one with the Richies | 2 |
| Jun 23 2015 | Solar Ribbon Cutting at Senior Center | 17 |
| Jun 27 2015 | GLREA Energy Fair | 50 |
| Jul 30 2015 | one-on-one with Glenn Nelson | 1 |
| Aug 15 2015 | one-on-one with Herb White | 1 |
| Sep 21 2015 | one-on-one with John Donnelly and wife | 2 |
| Oct 3 2015 | National Solar Tour | 20 |
| Nov 11 2015 | one-on-one with EMU student Kenneth Snavely | 1 |
| Dec 04 2015 | one-on-one with EMU student Jose Garcia | 1 |
2015 Total of 17 meetings reaching 282 people
| Feb 1 2016 | Brownstown Kiwasis | 15 |
| Feb 27 2016 | one-on-one with Gary Urick, wants to install | 1 |
| Mar 1 2016 | Washtenaw Internation High School, Gov Class 1 | 30 |
| Mar 1 2016 | Washtenaw Internation High School, Gov Class 2 | 25 |
| Mar 2 2016 | Washtenaw Internation High School, Gov Class 3 | 25 |
| Apr 5 2016 | one-on-one with Grant Cashman | 1 |
| Apr 12 2016 | Ann Arbor ELS class | 10 |
| Apr 12 2016 | Ann Arbor ELS class | 5 |
| Apr 24 2016 | Ypsi Library Michigan Ave | 10 |
| May 31 2016 | MIAT morning class | 60 |
| May 31 2016 | MIAT evening class | 25 |
| Jun 24 2016 | Girl Scout executives | 2 |
| Jun 24 2016 | Washtenaw Internation HS, Summer Gov Class | 40 |
| Sep 22 2016 | Unv of Michigan students at Cultivate | 2 |
| Sep 23 2016 | Arial Moore one-on-one at Cultivate | 1 |
| Oct 1 2016 | National Solar Tour at the Freighthouse | 16 |
| Oct 8 2016 | Cultivate Science Saturdays | 6 |
| Oct 22 2016 | one-on-one with Jennifer Slack and Ken Sevnson | 2 |
| Oct 27 2016 | Financing solar Meetup at Spark East | 16 |
| Nov 22 2016 | one-on-one with EMU student Justin Westphal | 1 |
2016 Total of 20 meetings reaching 293 people
| Jan 29 2017 | one-on-one with Everett Mayes | 1 |
| Feb 8 2017 | Washtenaw County solar presentstion | 2 |
| Feb 12 2017 | one-on-one with Aaron Brodkey (UnvMich student) | 1 |
| Feb 13 2017 | one-on-one with Bill Emory | 1 |
| Feb 19 2017 | one-on-one with Anne Stevenson | 1 |
| Feb 23 2017 | Mitchell & Mouat Architects (Thompson Block) | 4 |
| Mar 14 2017 | City of Ypsilanti Building Department, HDC | 6 |
| Mar 18 2017 | Brandon Knight – Strawberry Solar | 1 |
| Mar 6 2017 | Alyssa Jacobsen and Julie Miller EMU students | 2 |
| May 28 2017 | Ariel and Eric’s house | 10 |
| Jul 9 2017 | SouthEast Michigan Computer Organization | 25 |
| Jul 19 2017 | Ramzi Araj and Kais Kawar from Fives | 2 |
| Aug 16 2017 | One-on-one with Kumar Sivan | 1 |
| Oct 2 2017 | Ypsi Sustainability Commission meeting | 25 |
| Oct 7 2017 | National Solar Tour | 25 |
| Oct 11 2017 | Detroit Google Developers Group | 20 |
| Oct 12 2017 | one-on-one Kirk David from Crazy Horse | 1 |
| Nov 2 2017 | Ann Arbor Sustainibilty Meetup (SPARK East) | 8 |
| Nov 7 2017 | one-on-one with Stephanie Parker, EMU student | 1 |
| Nov 14 2017 | City Hall 50 big roofs | 10 |
| Nov 21 2017 | one-on-one with Dave Novak at Auto Museum | 1 |
| Dec 9 2017 | Cultivate Coffee & Tap House | 11 |
2017 Total of 22 meetings reaching 159 people
| Jan 11 2018 | Presented to Habitat for Humanity | 2 |
| Jan 11 2018 | Presentation at Belleville Library | 26 |
| Jan 12 2018 | Presentation at Ypsilanti Library | 2 |
| Feb 10 2018 | Ypsilanti Food Cooperative | 10 |
| Mar 12 2018 | Brianna Kelly Concentrate Media one-on-one | 1 |
| Mar 17 2018 | Habitat for Humanity ReStore – live streamed | 12 |
| Mar 29 2018 | one-on-one with EMU student Larry Romero | 1 |
| Apr 9 2018 | Rotary Club at EMU | 12 |
| Apr 22 2018 | Cultivate Earth Day event | 20 |
| Apr 25 2018 | Solar talk at TinkerTech | 5 |
| May 8 2018 | one-on-one with Rainbow Rehabilitation | 2 |
| May 16 2018 | Solar talk at Ypsilanti Performance Space | 15 |
| Jun 2 2018 | Solar talk at Ypsilanti Distric Library (Spanish) | 9 |
| Jun 22 2018 | Solar talk to WiHi government class (Mr.Fox) | 27 |
| Jun 22 2018 | Solar talk to WiHi government class (Mr.??) | 28 |
| Jun 23 2018 | one-on-one with Jonathan Ferrer | 1 |
| Jun 30 2018 | one-on-one with Kathleen Trues | 1 |
| Jul 17 2018 | Presented at Landline Creative Labs | 7 |
| Jul 25 2018 | Solar walking tour for Lansing 4-H club | 25 |
| Aug 14 2018 | Solar talk at Growing Hope | 2 |
| Aug 27 2018 | one-on-one with Mary and Finn | 2 |
| Aug 27 2018 | one-on-one with Robert Harlow | 2 |
| Sep 11 2018 | one-on-one with Nathan Houghteling MI Eng Club | 1 |
| Sep 22 2018 | Farmer’s Market Equinox Party | 100 |
| Oct 7 2018 | Natinoal Solar tour | 15 |
| Oct 9 2018 | University of Michigan Energy Club | 11 |
| Oct 30 2018 | one-on-one with Hannah Himmelbauer | 1 |
| Nov 6 2018 | HighScope Staff | 9 |
| Nov 7 2018 | one-on-one with Ben Harrington Spark East | 1 |
2018 Total of 29 meetings reaching 350 people
Total = 5424 people in 215 meetings
With all the recent solar installations going on in the City of Ypsilanti, I looked are our totals on the pie chart on the home page. We are currently sitting at 1,154,385 watts or 1.15MW. This is a bit conservative, since I know of a couple of solar installation that are not on SolarYpsi yet.
Looking at our current population on the Ypsilanti Wiki page, there are 21,076 people living in the city. Dividing 1,154,385 watts by 21,076 people we have 54.77 watts per capita.
Then looking at the 2018 Environment America Shining City report, page 7, I can see that San Francisco is ranked #18 with 54.1 watt/capita and Washington DC is ranked #17 with 69.4 watts/capita.
That makes Ypsilanti number #18 in the national for solar on a watts per capita basis. Woohoo!!
Granted we’re a small city, but something we can all be proud of achieving. Let’s install more solar power and shoot for over taking Honolulu and being #1. Call a solar contractor today and get a quote.
Thanks to everyone that has been sending in letter to DTE about our project. I’ve been getting a lot of emails and relies that letters are in the mail. Chart House Energy met with DTE last week and they are very positive on the project and we’ll know in several weeks.
We also receive a $20,000 TA Blitz voucher from the SunShot program to pay for the solar training program. If we are successful and complete all our SunShot projects, we have a chance to win $500,000! The future looks bright for solar in Ypsilanti.
Thank you all for helping.
———————————————————————-
Dear Team Solar Destination Ypsilanti,
Thank you for your recent application to the Solar in your Community Challenge’s TA Voucher Blitz. Congratulations! You have been selected to receive a $20,000 TA Blitz voucher. Please remember that this is a time-limited opportunity, and consultants must complete all work by March 12th.
Last summer Ypsilanti was recognized as a Gold SolSmart city. This made Ypsi the first and only city in Michigan to receive this award for their progress installing solar power throughout our community. The Gold award is achieved by accumulating points in different categories that makes your city “solar ready”. You need 60 points for Bronze, 100 points for Silver, and 200 points for Gold. The final point tally for Ypsi was 360 points! The SolSmart team also awards cities that excelled in specific categories. At last month’s ICMA (International City/County Management Association) annual conference in San Antonio, Ypsilanti was given awards for excelling in the “Planning, Zoning, and Development” and “Community Engagement” categories.
We have broken through the myth of “too cloudy, too costly”. Let’s keep the momentum going and put more solar power in Ypsilanti. A few more megawatts and we’ll be the national leader for solar power per capita.
Check out this article in FireHouse magazine about the solar project we did on the Ypsilanti Fire Station.
Building a Solar Community at a Michigan Fire Station.
Two years ago SolarYpsi received an anonymous donation that was used to install solar power on six non-profits in Ypsilanti. HomePower magazine just published an article about that project. You can read it online here. SOLUTIONS: PV Installations for Nonprofits
Saturday was a beautiful day and we had about a dozen volunteers show up for the Ypsi Fire Station solar installation. It was done in about seven hours! Thanks to the Ypsi Fire Department and DPW for moving the material to the roof. We had volunteers from Ypsi, Ann Arbor, and St.Louis. They ranged in age from 20 to 70 years old. Their skills varied from novice to profession solar installers. Having all the material on the roof made the job go fast. Everyone had fun and seem to enjoy themselves. As the old saying goes, “Many hands make light work”. It was like an Amish barn raising for solar power. We now have 50kW on our local Fire Station. The solar contractor, John Wakemen, is wiring it up this week and we hope to have it wrapped up in a few weeks. Pictures posted at SolarYpsi and many volunteers posted more on FaceBook.
Today on WEMU I heard that Ann Arbor announced that they want to be a “Solar Ready” city, Ann Arbor Wants To Become A ‘Solar Ready’ Community”. What’s interesting is the article says they currently have about 150kW of installed solar. I always wondered how much solar power our neighbors to the west had installed.
“As part of the city’s climate action plan, the council is considering approving a resolution to make Ann Arbor a “solar ready community.” They want to generate 24 megawatts by the year 2025. Council member Chip Smith from the 5th ward says right now that number is about 150 kilowatts a year.”
I checked the SolarYpsi map today and Ypsilanti has 184.6 kW of installed solar! This is pretty impressive for a city 1/5th the size.
In the spirit of friendly competition, I encourage all Ypsilantian to call a solar contractor today and get a quote for your home. The typical home needs about 5kW to be 100% solar powered, but something as small at 3kW can still make economic sense. At about $3/watt installed, so a 3kW system could cost about $10,000 and you’ll get 30% of that back on your Federal taxes.
SolarYpsi is also seeking funds to make solar rebates through the City. If anyone has any leads on philanthropic people/organizations that would be willing to fund a solar rebate project, please contact me.
Install some solar on your home today and keep Ypsilanti in the lead.