Home owners in Oberlin may be setting up their own solar energy cooperative.
Members of ‘OPEC', the Oberlin People’s Energy Cooperative, plan to install solar energy collecting technology on their own properties and sell any excess electricity to the power grid.
Dr. Carl McDaniel, a visiting environmental studies professor at Oberlin College, is part of the effort. He says contractors to install the equipment are already vetted and being asked for bids. “Once the RFP’s go out it takes about a month to get ‘em back. And it will take about three months to four months to complete the project. So it looks very, very good that we will have all of this done before fall.”
Installing home solar energy systems typically costs in the $15-thousand to $20-thousand dollar range per house.