City of Ashland - Police Station

The City of Ashland installed a 63.5-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) system on the roof of the City Service Center covered vehicle parking structure in July 2008, after selecting a proposal from Advanced Energy Systems of Eugene, Oregon. The city offered its citizens and businesses the opportunity to purchase 20 years of output from the system via one of the first community solar project models in the country. That output is then paid back as a credit on the purchasers’ electric bills.

Energy monitoring services and equipment provided to the City by Solar 4R Schools™ made the real-time performance data from their PV system accessible to the community. This effectively transforms the system into a unique, interactive, real-world learning tool for classrooms. Students and educators analyzed the system's performance data for educational purposes.