Our History
We're still populating this section fo the website. Do you have informaton to add to the History section? We'd love to hear from you! Please forward any relevant SolarWA history information to webmaster@solarwa.org so that we can include it!
Some highlights:
- The Solar Washington Association was officially formed on June 20th, 2000 as a 501(c)3 with the IRS and the State of Washington as an educational non-profit.
- We started as the Washington Solar Energy Industries Association (WASEIA), a chapter of the Solar Energy Industries Association, which is a national trade alliance headquartered in the other Washington. They were having funding troubles at the end of the 20th century and we decided to switch over and become an ASES chapter instead.
Noted accomplishments and events:
- Organized the state solar tour in conjunction with the national solar tour annually since October 2000, and coordinate the 4th largest tour in the nation in 2005, with over 150 sites and more than 1,200 visitors in at least a dozen communities, statewide.
- Helped organize the national solar conference in Portland in 2004 and arranged many tours in Washington State directly before the conference.
- Joint meetings, tours and celebrations with the NW Solar Group (Tacoma), Shoreline Solar Project (N. Seattle) and the NW Eco-Building Guild (Seattle).
- Donated solar hot water equipment to the 2005 WSU Solar Decathlon House being built as part of the National Competition in Washington, D.C.
- Held meetings in conjunction with tours of: JX Crystals-maker of super high efficiency dual junction solar cells in Issaquah, Xantrex-large inverter manufacturer in Arlington, Spirit Ridge Inn-passive solar/PV powered B&B/event center, The Stillaguamish Valley Pioneer Museum-passive & active solar powered hydronic heating and ground tube cooling systems.
