ARRA-y

WHITE CENTER, WASHINGTON - "Oxymoron." It's one of those words folks have to dredge pretty deep through their memory banks to recall its meaning. Not this time, at least. An oxymoron, says Wikipedia, is "a figure of speech that combines contradictory words." Like "living dead" or "deliciously bland."

Or "sunny Seattle." Think sun, after all, and up comes Tucson or Miami or L.A. But not Seattle.

Though it is a bit of a bad rap. Most years, Baltimore gets more precipitation than Seattle. Ditto for Boston and Louisville, Philadelphia and Oklahoma City, Atlanta and New York and, even, Tampa and Miami. Not exactly places where travel guides will remind you to "pack your umbrella."

No need, though, to run out and buy some sun screen. Because while Seattle is certainly not as rainy as a lot of other cities, it is cloudier. enjoying just 70 or so sunny days a year, less than a third the number in Phoenix or Las Vegas.

So, you'll probably be a bit perplexed to learn that, the King County Housing Authority is installing an array of 213 solar panels on 24 public housing units being built with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds from HUD in its Greenbridge revitalization area. When finished later this summer, says the Authority, it'll be the "largest" residential solar array in Washington state.

Notwithstanding the meteorological facts of life, it's a good idea. Sure Seattle's cloudy. But the Sun doesn't stop producing and we don't stop receiving solar energy just because it's overcast. Even in the darkest, dankest, dampest days of winter, says Synergy Systems, "most of the Northwest actually receives up to 70 percent of the sunlight that Los Angeles does." And, it certainly gets more sun than Germany where, believe it or not, more than half of the world's solar energy currently is being produced.

The 213 panels, the Authority estimates, will generate just over 52,000 kilowatt hours each year. Guess work? Nope. In fact, the Authority already has solar panels on the roof of the Jim Wiley Community Center at Greenbridge, and at twelve other sites owned or managed by the housing authority. Obviously, it's not the first nor, probably, the last time the Authority's gone solar.

"The project," said Authority executive director Stephen Norman, "reflects our continued progress towards a more cost-efficient and sustainable future. The entire region benefits when we produce power from a clean, renewable source, providing well-paying green jobs while off-setting the cost of providing electricity and cutting the taxpayers' bill on an ongoing basis."

"Sunny Seattle"? Try as we might, that'll probably never work. But thanks to the innovative efforts of the King County Housing Authority, "solar Seattle" just might.

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Content Archived: December 13, 2013