'Up close and personal' with the sun

Traveling exhibit aims to build interest in solar power

Staci Matlock | The New Mexican

9/10/2008 - 9/11/08

What if Santa Feans decided their city should be powered completely by the sun? Could it find enough space for enough solar panels, and how much would it cost?

The City Tour for Solar will be at Santa Fe's Genoveva Chavez Community Center parking lot on Friday to talk solar, cook solar, show solar. Sponsored by a group of solar-industry partners, the tour is stopping in 50 cities in 100 days with interactive displays powered by solar panels, carried on bio-diesel trucks.

The goal is to help people get "up close and personal with solar," said marketing manager Chris Nichols of SunEdison, an operator of photovoltaic power plants that is helping sponsor the tour.

"Solar power is a proven technology," he said. "It is very predictable, very durable."

The free exhibit in Santa Fe will include a solar-powered fountain, a video explaining how a community can analyze its solar resources and "go solar." "A lot of cities really have no idea how much energy they have available (from solar)," Nichols said.

Tour leaders will be baking cookies in solar oven. "That's the best thing I know to draw a crowd because you can smell the cookies," she said.

People can test their solar knowledge with an interactive test, too.

Nichols said if people and community leaders understand better how solar works, they'll be more likely to consider solar power viable. That choice should be made locally, Nichols said.

"So many energy choices are imposed from the top (federal and state)," Nichols said. "This is a matter of going to local people and saying, what's right for your community?"

The city of Santa Fe and the New Mexico State Land Office also are participating in Friday's event. The city is interested in installing a large solar-power system near the waste-treatment plant southwest of the city.

For more information about the tour, see www.CityTourforSolar.com.

Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.

IF YOU GO

What: The City Tour for Solar, with interactive displays sponsored by solar industry

When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday.

Where: Santa Fe's Genoveva Chavez Community Center parking lot

Cost: Free