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September 3, 2007
Washburn's unique solar art gallery
From an article by Dan Satran Jr. in The County Journal:
A solar powered gallery: sounds like something right out of Al Gore's imagination. You know, the spokesman for "An Inconvenient Truth." In this case it's the outgrowth of a twosome who are firm believers in reducing what's being called carbon footprints, Anni Schneider, one of the owners of Washburn's Superior Gallery, and Chris LaForge, owner of Port Wing's Great Northern Solar.Panel installation was the result of a workshop at the gallery recently, led by LaForge. A year in the planning, Schneider said the idea started with a meeting, appropriately enough, at Ashland's Black Cat, known as a hotbed for innovative ideas. (That same meeting led to the building of solar panels at Wisconsin Indianhead Technical Institute (WITC), recently reported in the Ashland Daily Press). Schneider, who teaches physics and electronics at Ashland High School, said she had also originally hoped that the school could install solar panels. That idea remains in the planning and funding stage. So, on a smaller scale, there was the gallery installation.
LaForge said they first investigated the possibility of installing solar panels at the Washburn family residence of Schneider and her husband Dave McCormick. Here, there were obstacles, trees that blocked the view and an exposure that was not quite right. The further they investigated, the more the gallery location became more inviting. LaForge explained: "Federal tax credits for erecting solar panels are capped at no more than $2,000 while on a business, the full 30 percent of the cost can be a write-off," he said. Additionally, there is a state cash back program called Focus on Energy. Adding these together, roughly half of the cost was covered at the gallery.
While there is a relatively slow payback on a solar installation, LaForge said there is another benefit, power generated being fed back to the utility that supplies it to the gallery. "After somewhere between 10-15 years, the entire cost of the solar power project will be covered by this payback so if the system lasts 50 years, as expected, that means for 35 years it will be generating electricity, free of cost," he said.
Posted by Ed Blume at September 3, 2007 3:41 PM