Let’s bring one big misunderstanding out into the bright light of day.
Places like Forks and Port Townsend may look dreary much of the time, but they’re loaded with what Jeff Randall calls “solar resource.”
Sun power, that is. Free electricity.
Across Clallam and Jefferson counties, 70 homes and businesses are reaping solar energy, said Randall, a staffer at Power Trip Energy in Port Townsend and an organizer of Saturday’s Solar Tours of the North Olympic Peninsula.
Clallam’s tour features Sequim High School and a dozen other solar-powered locations while Jefferson solar tourists can visit up to 18 homes and offices.
The Peninsula’s two northern counties, with a population still under 100,000, has one of the state’s highest concentrations of solar modules, Randall said.
In King County, where more than 1.8 million people live, just 46 sets of solar modules gather rays and feed them back into the power grid.
Washington State as a whole counts more than 300 solar-powered homes, schools and businesses.
This impresses Randall because, while sunshine is free, the panels to absorb it run from $13,000 to more than $30,000 per set.
“Global warming is heavy on people’s minds, as is the legacy they’re leaving their children and grandchildren,” he said.
