This will be of interest mostly to my North Texas Indigo friends, but I hope you'll indulge me. If you come to our place in Southlake, I'm happy to show off our solar PV array, Indigo system, whole-house energy monitoring and an electric vehicle or two.
The North Texas Renewable Energy Group (“NTREG”) is pleased to announce the 5th Annual DFW Solar Tour!
The 2014 DFW Solar Tour is a free, one-day event taking place this year on Saturday, October 4, 2014. From 10 am to 4 pm, the general public is invited to visit select innovative homes and buildings throughout the Dallas- Ft. Worth Metroplex.
The tour enables people to learn how their neighbors – homeowners and businesses alike – are using solar energy, wind energy, energy efficiency, and other sustainable technologies to save money and consume less of our natural resources. The strategies and techniques on display during this year’s tour range from things as simple and easy as changing to LED light bulbs and selecting more efficient appliances, to cutting-edge, ultra- efficient eco-homes and businesses that are generating as much or more energy than they consume!
Last year, some 500+ visits were tracked at homes, schools, libraries and other buildings ranging from Duncanville to Plano, from Rockwall to Lewisville, all the way out to a rural off-grid home near Azle, with plenty of interesting sites in between. In fact, 2013’s DFW Solar Tour drew people from as far away as Houston to see what forward-thinking people in North Texas are doing to build a self-sufficient, sustainable future.
“Thanks in part to the generosity of Oncor’s Take a Load Off Texas Program, we anticipate this year’s DFW Solar Tour will be bigger and better than ever,” explained tour coordinator Mellen West. “We will be including homes with solar panels, wind turbines, greywater systems, electric cars, and manual lawnmowers whose owners never go to gas stations. The Tour will include businesses such as The da Vinci School near Midway and Royal, which received a prestigious LEED Gold certification for their ground-up green building techniques.” NTREG’s Lissa Magel added, “We will be featuring some new locations this year and we actively welcome homeowners and businesses to volunteer to be a part of the tour. For example, Tesla Motors plans to offer a Model S ‘drive experience’ at a select 2014 DFW Solar Tour location.”

The DFW Solar Tour is organized by the non-profit, volunteer-based North Texas Renewable Energy Group in cooperation with the Texas Solar Energy Society and the American Solar Energy Society National Solar Tour. The National Solar tour is the largest grassroots solar event in the nation, involving about 150,000 participants and 5,000 solar-energy sites nationwide. Mr. West noted, “We have sponsorship opportunities at the kilowatt, megawatt and gigawatt levels available to those committed to keeping this kind of peer-to-peer educational event fun and free to the public.”
. Sounds great though, especially from a place where I always imagined that you'd get lynched if you ever mentioned something that wasn't oil powered!
