PGE is helping to grow solar energy in Oregon in a variety of ways, including recruiting solar manufacturers here and creating partnerships to implement solar electric installations. Learn about two pioneering solar projects:
Nation’s first solar highway
PGE helped develop the nation’s first solar highway — the Oregon Solar Highway Demonstration Project — at the Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 interchange in Tualatin.
The electricity generated is operating highway lights reducing the state’s reliance on fossil fuels.
The 104-kilowatt solar photovoltaic demonstration project, which covers about 8,000 square feet — roughly the length of two football fields — is a collaboration with the Oregon Department of Transportation. The project began supplying renewable power in December 2008 to help light the way for drivers at the interchange.
The solar panels produce electricity during the day, supplying power onto the PGE grid, and PGE returns an equivalent amount of power at night to light the interchange, through a net metering arrangement with the state.
The solar highway is expected to produce about 112,000 kilowatt hours a year, or 28 percent of the 400,000 kilowatt hours used to light the interchange, and actual performance is better than predicted.
The $1.3 million project is an “all-Oregon” effort — Oregon companies supplied the materials, design and installation of this collaborative project, which means a boost for the Oregon economy.
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Northwest’s largest rooftop installation
PGE, ProLogis and other partners rolled out a 2.4 megawatt rooftop solar project in 2010, the largest solar project in the Pacific Northwest. The project adds to a 2009 ProLogis rooftop solar project, bringing PGE’s total partnership with ProLogis to 3.5 megawatts of solar energy, enough to power about 388 households annually. The project was also funded in part by PGE Clean Wind renewable power customers.
The 2010 project covers 900,000 square feet of roof space on seven ProLogis distribution centers in Portland, Gresham and Clackamas. Using thin-film solar panels, it puts solar power directly onto the grid, adding to the renewable energy PGE already delivers to our customers.
View live dashboard of energy output at ProLogis
To view the energy output from these rootops, updated every minute, see our
solar energy dashboard, a website developed in partnership ProLogis.
You can:
- View graphs showing output over different time periods.
- Look at photos and a video on project installation.
- Learn more about how solar works.
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