Positive energy SolarFest showcases power of the sun
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By Susan Smallheer Staff Writer - Published: July 12, 2009
TINMOUTH – In a summer in which sunshine and heat have been in short supply, the solar array that runs the electric demands of SolarFest was pumping out plenty of power.
And side by side in one of the big white tents were one of the state's first solar energy firms and one of its most recent, and fastest growing. Sunnyside Solar and groSolar could illustrate the history of the solar, once considered a quirky alternative, in the Green Mountain State.
"We've grown 3,600 percent in the past five years," said Dori Wolfe of the White River Junction-based groSolar, which has 183 employees, 65 of them in Vermont.
Wolfe and her husband Jeff founded groSolar in their Strafford home about 10 years ago, and in 2004 moved it to White River Junction.
"It's growing fast and it takes all of us to keep up," Wolfe said during a break in the festival. The solar industry, she said, has grown from infancy into adolescence.
SolarFest, a weekend celebration of "positive energy," started in Middletown Springs 15 years ago. Now held at Forget-Me-Not Farm, the festival runs from Friday through Sunday. It features lectures, workshops, solar tours, networking and practical information from vendors on all kinds of alternative energy.
In between, there is plenty of good food, music and politics.
GroSolar and Sunnyside Solar could be the bookends of the solar business in Vermont.
Carol Levin's husband Richard Gottlieb, who has a master's degree in solar engineering from Goddard College, founded Sunnyside Solar in Guilford back in 1979. It calls itself the "gentle" energy company with two employees. Nowadays, Levin said the couple mostly does education and training, rather than installing residential or commercial systems.
"We can't teach fast enough," she said.
They leave installation work to companies like groSolar, which grabbed headlines last year with a solar hot water installation at Boston's Fenway Park. GroSolar is one of a couple of dozen alternative energy firms in the state, most of whom had a display at the fair.
"Dori and Jeff's vision is to make it mainstream," said Levin.
Solar energy, Levin said, is more accessible to Vermonters than wind because wind is very site specific. But virtually everyone can tap the sun's energy for their electricity or heating their hot water, she said.
When she and her husband first got into the solar business, she said, solar energy was used mostly for heating water. Now, more and more people are installing what she called "PVs," or photo-voltaic systems, which generate electricity for a home or business, and put the surplus onto the energy grid, a system called net-metering.
Federal tax credits are helping her firm grow, Wolfe said, but most of the federal stimulus energy money so far has been for weatherization.
One of groSolar's goals is to make financing a solar energy system as commonplace as buying a car, she said, and purchased over time, or leased. Businesses, she said, should take advantage of a 30 percent federal tax credit.
Despite hurdles, Wolfe said, the company is growing and interest is strong. The company advertised for two solar installers at its office in Maryland and got 200 qualified applicants, she said.
While Vermont does have tax incentives for to solar installations, other states like Massachusetts and New York have even stronger programs. Towns and cities in those states, Levin said, are taking the lead and are setting the solar example.
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
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