[This post comes to you courtesy of Black Rock Solar's Marnee Benson.]

Rupert Powers, Freddy Pete, and Norman Fillmore of the Washoe Tribe atop Stewart Community Center

Black Rock Solar, one of Black Rock City LLC’s spin-off non-profit organizations, completed work last week on two new solar arrays for the Washoe Tribe of Nevada. The 14 kW roof-top arrays will provide electricity for the Stewart Community Center, where community members attend meetings and cultural events, and to the Head Start building, where educational programs and support services are provided for tribal youth.

Dave Lasky

These are Black Rock Solar’s third and fourth projects for the Washoe Tribe. Through these projects, BRS worked with members of the tribe to provide hands-on job training and classroom education in photovoltaic systems.

These two installations were supervised by Dave Lasky, one of Nevada’s most recent North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) certified solar installers, a distinction held by only 22 people in the entire state.

Western Nevada College Array

Also last week, BRS completed work on their largest array to date, for Western Nevada College, located in Carson City, NV. This 201 kW installation will provide a savings of $28,000 per year for the college.  The crew (including 5 newly hired members) dug 518 holes to build the racking system, and installed 836 solar panels at a value of just under $1 million.

This is the first in a series of arrays BRS will be doing across the state for the Nevada System of Higher Education. The dedication ceremony for WNC is scheduled for April 18th, 2012, a few days before the 42nd anniversary of Earth Day. For information, visit the Black Rock Solar website.

Evening crowd shot from the Cal Neva parking garage during Compression 2010. Photo by Bill Kositzky

Reno is blowin’ up. Living here right now is highly exciting, despite the recession that just won’t die. We may not be rich, but we Reno dwellers have great art at our fingertips and Burning Man culture up the wazoo. Who needs money when you’ve got art and fire?

For years now, the City of Reno has been working with BRAF to exhibit Black Rock City’s best artworks. This month, the Spire of Fire is in place and will be lighting up every Tuesday night as part of Artown, Reno’s month-long art festival. Read more »

This was just too good not to share. In case you didn’t know, Black Rock Solar doesn’t just gift low- and no-cost solar power to Northern Nevada institutions who can’t otherwise afford it, they are also spearheading an ambitious education and outreach program as part of their mission to promote alternative energy solutions. BRS’s Marnee Benson writes:

“It’s been a busy and rewarding week for Black Rock Solar education and outreach. On Monday March 21st, we teamed up with Burning Man Government Relations & Legal Affairs to meet with community members in Lovelock, Nevada and discuss economic development. Next up we visited Rainshadow Charter School in Reno to talk about energy efficiency and solar power. In 2010 Black Rock Solar installed a 30 kW array for the school, and this year the students are participating in GREENevada’s Sustainability Plan Competition.

On Wednesday we took part in the Nevada Inter-Tribal Renewable Energy Consortium meeting in Carson City, providing information about our work with Native American tribes across the region. Thursday saw Black Rock Solar twice at the University of Nevada Reno. The first was a presentation for the Davidson Academy, a free school for profoundly gifted learners, and the second was a lecture for UNR’s Energy Policy class, where topics discussed included state and federal policy, economic models in renewable energy, and internship opportunities.”

Phew! For more information, visit the Black Rock Solar website.

Every year since 2003, Burning Man has used proceeds from ice sales at the event to make year-end donations to various charitable, art and service organizations in Northern Nevada and the San Francisco Bay Area. For 2010, we worked to increase the total dollar amount of our donations, committing a total of $159,850 for the year. On the heels of the recent news about the closure of the US Gypsum plant in Empire,  we gave special consideration to those charities that benefit the people and communities of Northern Nevada.

Below is a list of charitable donation recipients for 2010: