The public is invited to take the FREE “Green Energy Ohio Tour” and network with friends and neighbors using renewable energy, energy efficiency and green design. There are many open houses and guided green energy tours taking place across the State of Ohio. Oberlin will be participating with a guided tour on Saturday, October 6 from 10 am – 4 pm.
For the last 10 years, the educational non-profit organization Green Energy Ohio (GEO) has sponsored the tour on the first weekend in October to showcase the industry across the state. A few years ago GEO changed the "Ohio Solar Tour" name to the "Green Energy Ohio Tour" to more accurately describe the tour that features not only solar, but tour sites with wind, energy efficiency, biomass and other green energy technologies.
The Oberlin guided tour commences on Saturday, October 6 with a 10:00 am kick-off at the Adam Joseph Lewis Center. Architect Magazine named the Lewis Center the most important green building since 1980 based on feedback from green building experts and advocates. The second stop is a residential home that features a 3.8 kW solar system and rainwater collection system. The third tour stop will be for lunch hosted by Oberlin Municipal Light & Power in conjunction with Public Power Week and a guided tour of the solar array and diesel/natural gas peaking power plant. The fourth stop will be at the Oberlin College solar array. Oberlin College has entered into a power purchasing agreement with Spear Point Energy to purchase electricity from a 2.27-megawatt (MW) solar array to be constructed on college property. It will be the largest photovoltaic array on any college or university campus in Ohio. The fifth stop will be at Energy Developments, Inc. (EDI). EDI runs an electric generation facility using the methane gas collected from the landfill just outside of Oberlin – by using this resource to generate electricity, EDI is recycling a material that would otherwise be burned as waste and reducing the demand for fossil fuel-based generation. The power generation is interconnected with a power grid to enable the sale of safe, clean energy. The guided tour concludes with a stop at Trail Magic, Oberlin’s first positive energy home that uses a variety of innovations to achieve climate neutrality and sustainability – to date, Trail Magic has exported over 6,300 kWh back to the grid.
A complete list of tour sites and times are available online at http://www.greenenergyohio.org on the guided tour section of the 2012 Tour page. Feel free to attend the whole tour or join at a stop along the way. A carpool caravan will be led by Sharon Pearson, Program Coordinator for the Oberlin Project, from the Adam Joseph Lewis Center, 122 Elm Street (first location on the tour.) For more information and for a list of tour sites and map, contact Sharon Pearson at The Oberlin Project offices, by calling (440) 775-6473 or spearson@oberlinproject.org. This tour is co-sponsored by Green Energy Ohio and The Oberlin Project.
Tour Sites Information located at: http://www.greenenergyohio.org/page.cfm?pageID=3301. Please RSVP wth Sharon Pearson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 440-775-6473.