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Solar for seniors

TIM CURRAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO

Guy Anderson, left, and Kirk Cameron, are the contractor and designer respectively, of the 420-panel new solar array on the roof of CherryWood Villages' Assisted Living building. The entire project cost $540,000 and is expected to cut annual energy costs by 25 percent.
TIM CURRAN/MID-COUNTY MEMO
Ed Fritz, president of board of directors of the CherryWood Village resident's council shows the monitoring panel installed for residents to see how much power the array generates. Fritz is tickled with the new solar array. To him, it is another symbol of how much the management cares not only about the residents and the buildings they call home, but also about the environment.
CherryWood Village, a retirement community for moderate-income seniors on a compact, 12-acre campus near Adventist Medical Center and Mall 205 - held a ribbon cutting ceremony for a roof solar panel system on one of its buildings, the first of its kind in Portland and the largest array of its kind in the state.

Energy rate increases, a desire to stand out among their competitors and the commitment to be more environmentally responsible - along with the tax and construction incentives - were reasons cited for undertaking this project.

Chip Gabriel, president of Generations LLC, CherryWood Village owners, said the $540,000 project will save as much as $15,500 a year in energy costs, and they expect to cut the one building's annual electric bill by 25 percent. “We began looking at this a couple years ago,” he said. “It took us that long to get approval from Fannie Mae to do the financing with a private vendor.” Gabriel said, “You wouldn't have private enterprise doing this without the federal help and tax incentives.” With Generations' cash outlay for the system estimated at $80,000, Gabriel expects to recoup the investment in five years instead of the twenty or more it would take with no incentives.

The entire project was also funded by a federal grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, state business tax credits, and an incentive from Energy Trust of Oregon as well as private financing by Dooling Leasing, a subsidiary of Umpqua Bank.

“All of these energy savings ultimately mean better services to our residents,” Gabriel said. Most of CherryWood's residents have fixed incomes and “every penny we save in energy costs will go directly into providing services for our seniors.” He added, “When children of residents see we are taking care of the environment, they translate that into we'll also take good care of their parents.”

He said this is a 'kick the tire' system and “If it works here, we'll be looking at doing it at our other facilities too.” Generations, LLC owns three other retirement communities, one in Clackamas, one in Walla Walla, Wash. and the third in California.

Gabriel said, “Historically we never raise rents more than the Social Security and Cost of Living increases,” Gabriel said.” The last two years it has been zero. We did a 1 percent increase this year because our property taxes and utilities went up and we need to cover that. If they're (residents) getting nothing, it's hard to pass that along.”

Built on the roof of CherryWood Village's Assisted Living building, the array is comprised of 420 photovoltaic panels, each weighing 48 lbs. and producing 220 maximum watts, the new 92.4-kilowatt solar system. The installation took seven weeks and went online Dec. 30. To compare, the average solar home in Portland has 6-10 panels producing 1 to 1.6 kilowatts. A panel monitoring the array's output was installed near the main dining hall above a weather station for CherryWood Village residents to track how much electricity the array generates.

Residents were, and are curious how it will affect them. A pre-installation residents' meeting with contractors, scheduled for 20 minutes, took two hours with all the questions and concerns residents had.

Three-year resident Ed Fritz, president of the board of directors of the CherryWood Village Council, agrees with the company's move to go green. He said it is important to the residents because, “We feel we're living in a place that is aware of the need for a greener kind of community to live in. They seem to be a very progressive kind of management; they are always looking for ways to improve, not only the facility, but also the living conditions here of the residents; to make sure there are plenty of programs that we can all opt-in or out of if we want to; just a lot of things happening here, very positive.

For CherryWood resident Edith Stacey, the new green policy was a factor in changing her mind to relocate to an out-of-state facility and she wrote management to commend them “for their interest in protecting the environment.”

Lake Oswego's NW Photon Energy, a two-year-old provider of solar design, financing and installation of turnkey PV systems, provided the rooftop-mounted solar system. Kirk Cameron, President of NWPE, says, “This installation will help reduce operating costs, provide long-term clean energy output as well as enhance building value.”

Anderson Case & Remodeling contractors, also a Lake Oswego business, installed the system consisting of photovoltaic modules and a mounting system manufactured by Schüco and inverters supplied by SMA Sunnyboy, both of California.

In outer Southeast Portland, CherryWood Village, www.cherrywoodvillage.net, has 390 moderate-income senior residents living in 296 individual units in five separate buildings and 22 unattached cottages.
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