We have been very lucky to work with a local DC cooperative that is working to help their neighborhood go solar by making it convenient and affordable for everyone in their neighborhood. The Mt. Pleasant Solar Cooperative is an association of 70-plus households in the Mt. Pleasant community of the District of Columbia. They were founded because of the urgent need they felt to reduce their impact on global warming. They decided to use the coop model for two reasons. First, they decided that if they were going to go through all the work to figure out how to install solar technology, they realized they would have a bigger impact by including more people in the project. Second, they  needed a way to make solar power less expensive and thought that through bulk purchase and sharing expertise and expenses they could bring down the cost.

Their immediate goal is to satisfy the solar needs of their neighborhood and ultimately to develop a model that can be rolled out in neighborhoods across the country.

The Mt. Pleasant Coop held an open house on Saturday, September 19th to show the public the success of this program. Check out some of the photos below and see the link to the news story here.