The ASES Solar Tour hosted by the Houston Renewable Energy Group was held last Saturday and was a Blast! Although we are still waiting on a complete head count, I heard one location had as many as 180 people show up! With over 20 projects on the tour this year, I know the total number of attendees will be amazing!
The tour hosted everything from Solar Attic fans to Virginia Point which is a LEED home under construction that has 140 Solar Panels on it. This home creates more power than I use in my home every year!
The project that sticks out in my mind as being really interesting is the one on Waugh Dr. It is 2 sales offices that are made from shipping containers. I had the opportunity to speak with Joe Meppelink of MetaLab while I was on the tour and what a fascinating guy. You can bet that an interview with him will be coming shortly. The 2 shipping containers are run off of 10 solar panels- All of which sustained Hurricane Ike without a scratch.
We then had a Solar Social at Discovery Green Downtown from 4-6 where Whole Foods and other vendors were there handing out educational literature and freebies. Thank you to all of the vendors that showed up! There was also live music that kept of hopping.
I so look forward to the tour next year! Every year it gets better and better! If you missed the tour, there are some pictures below. If you would like to see what projects were on the tour and learn a little more about them, click here.
A special Thanks goes out to Land Tejas for having Discovery at Spring Trails and Lakes of Williams Ranch on the tour so that we can learn how Developers play a role in future sustainablility!
Stephanie this is an excellent post on Green and I particularly liked your use of the Slide show program! I am glad to see the Green movement spreading!
Amazingly the few people in Houston that were appointed over this fail to communicate well to those who are not of importance. To me it was a big political stunt, and more for the business potential (from outside companies) rather than the people. - Jamescgale@yahoo.com
I just loved the slide show. Austin needs to do one of these events. I am very impressed that Houston is ahead of the curve with so many green projects!! Way to go!
Austin does do a tour every year, called the Cool House Tour.
www.txses.org/solar/content/cool-house-tour
Hi Russell, thanks for stopping by! Houston is really catching on.
Hi Mike, Thanks for stopping by to post a link for the Austin tour. See you soon!
For anyone else that stops by, the American Solar Energy Society and local organizations that are members of the organization host these tours Nationwide in October every year. Here is the link to search for one close to you:
ASES National Solar Tour Information