“I wanted to write about this story when it broke in March but we were just setting up the website and I was up to my neck in the FREEZE Legislation which was just signed today!!! as Senate Bill 1592. Please see the Bulletin Board for the details. And I had not even tackled the Bulletin Board let alone this blog but since the last entry was about NOLA I thought I would go back and get it. I lived in NOLA for 12 years and I KNOW a Bruce Harris, so when I first saw the story I almost died, but its not my Bruce.”

 http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=47637

Greening the Future of New Orleans

Residents in the Lower 9th Ward rebuild using donated solar systems from Sharp Solar.

by Stephen Lacey, Staff Writer

New Orleans, Louisiana [RenewableEnergyAccess.com]

Bruce Harris has a big smile on his face. Standing between his small FEMA trailer and peeling yellow house in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, he points to a new inverter attached to the worn clapboard.

“It’s great being a part of the reconstruction effort here — to be installing a solar system for someone who’s going to make great use of it.” 

Harris’ new 1.5-kilowatt (kW) system is one of ten donated to New Orleans residents by the Sharp Solar Energy Solutions Group (SESG) as part of the company’s customer conference, called “SOLA in NOLA.”

 “I also used to work at the Alliance For Affordable Energy, so this story is a double OH YAH for me.”

Namaste Solar and Solar Plexus are two of ten installation companies that have donated their time and labor to put solar systems on the houses of residents in the Lower 9th Ward who are rebuilding their lives after the flooding from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.The other companies participating in the effort include Borrego Solar, Direct Power and Water, Meridian Energy Systems, HelioPower, REgrid Power, Sharpe Solar Energy Systems, Solar Design Associates and Jersey Solar. The teams came down for Sharp’s annual customer conference two days early to install the systems.Sharp partnered with the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association, the Alliance for Affordable Energy, Williams Architects and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources to select the installation sites. Applicants for the systems were put in a lottery and selected at random.

 The immortal truth about this article is that no buildings should be built in this country without power generation installed. And I don’t care how small the building or for that matter how large. If we would have started doing this 30 years ago we would be done, Burning Down The House.

http://www.last.fm/music/Talking+Heads/_/Burning+Down+the+House