The Climate Action Committee (CAC) of the Town of Alna announced the addition of a Solar House Tour to compliment the Alna Community Solar Day event planned for Saturday, June 21. The Alna Solar House Tour will feature seven residential solar installations that neighbors can drop by to view from 2 to 4 p.m. A map of participating solar homes will be available during the main Community Solar Day event at the Alna Fire House from 1 to 4 p.m. 

“This is a great opportunity to see how local homeowners have made the conversion to solar energy and ask any question at all about what they did and why,” said CAC member Al Monaco, whose home will be on the tour.

CAC member Scott Budde, who will also be available at the Fire House event to provide detailed information about the residential system they installed, said “I know a lot more now about the benefits of solar than I did before our conversion. We used the solar installation as an opportunity to go fully electric for all our heating, cooling, transportation and cooking. I'm glad to discuss my experience with anyone who is thinking about going solar."  

In addition to learning more about how clean energy resources are being used around the community, Alna residents are invited to meet the crew at Maine Solar Solutions, who installed Alna’s Fire House system, and watch a demonstration of how drones are used to help site rooftop arrays for optimal efficiency.  

There will also be hands-on demonstrations of Alna’s new emergency backup portable power stations as well as information on how both the Alna Food Pantry and Community Garden benefit from solar power! 

The Town of Alna’s full municipal transition to solar power and the purchase of five portable, safe, clean, high-capacity lending batteries was made possible by a $44,000 Community Action Grant awarded to Alna by the Governor’sOffice of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF) through its Community Resilience Partnership program.