Oct 5 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Michael Milstein The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

Oregon is so eager to embrace renewable energy that solar panels soon will become a roadside attraction.

A little-known office in the Oregon Department of Transportation, assigned to pursue innovative new ideas, is planning pilot installations of photovoltaic solar panels on state property such as road shoulders, noise barriers along highways, and bridges.

The thinking is that the solar panels could make profitable use of what is now empty space in highway rights of way.

"The public has invested in this right-of-way, and it's just sitting there," said Allison Hamilton of ODOT's Office of Innovative Partnerships and Alternative Funding. "It's not a broad enough strip to farm, and you can't drive on it."

She got the idea while watching a public television documentary that discussed installations of solar panels along highways in Europe. It made a lot of sense to her, but as far as she has been able to find out, nobody has done the same thing in the United States -- yet.

Department of Transportation brass encouraged Hamilton to pursue the idea in Oregon.

The department has a strong interest in pursuing alternative energy, because Gov. Ted Kulongoski wants state agencies to get 100 percent of their energy needs from solar, wind and other renewable energy sources by 2010.

Renewable energy must supply 25 percent of the state's power needs by 2025.

ODOT hasn't worked out exactly how the solar arrangement might come together. Since the state agency does not have extra cash to invest in new solar equipment, it's more likely the state would seek a private company to install the panels with some agreement to sell the energy to the state at or below market rates, she said.

The state could use the solar energy to power highway lighting or other power-hungry equipment.

That approach might make sense because a private company could reap the benefits of state and federal tax credits for the cost of the solar panels, while ODOT could not because state agencies don't pay taxes. The state might get an option to eventually acquire the panels.

Portland General Electric has shown interest in working with the state on the project, Hamilton said.

ODOT has issued a formal request for companies or agencies to offer innovative options to demonstrate what it calls "solar power plants" producing up to 250 kilowatts on road shoulders, barriers, walls, abutments, rest areas or ports of entry. Once the department gathers more specifics, it probably will seek proposals to develop the solar installations.

"By this time next year, I think we'll have projects on the ground and plugged in," Hamilton said.

The initial target of 250 kilowatts is not much energy compared with what major power plants can generate, but it is a start.

She said the first demonstration projects would probably be located in the Willamette Valley, possibly around Portland or Salem. Solar panels might hang off highway overpasses or be installed on the ground in open space around freeway interchanges such as the junction at Interstates 5 and 205.

Of course, the projects would be designed so they do not compromise highway safety or reflect sun in drivers' eyes.

"Anything you use on a highway has to be approved," said Lynn Frank, a former director of the Oregon Department of Energy and now president of Five Stars International, a consulting company in Salem working with ODOT on the project.

Larger future projects eventually might be located on the sunnier east side of Oregon, but that would depend on where they could tie into regional electric transmission lines that are already nearly maxed out. On the cloudier west side of Oregon, though, solar energy still has plenty of potential, Hamilton said.

"Even on the west side we get more sun than Germany does, and Germany has solar panels everywhere," she said.

She said the vision of solar highways has several potential payoffs: lower state energy costs, better use of state property and promotion of Oregon as a leader in renewable energy. The state has about 16,000 lane-miles to work with.

"It's a huge opportunity throughout Oregon and potentially the country," Frank said.

The Transportation Department, because of its statewide reach and many vehicles, generates much of the greenhouse gas released by state operations. If state agencies meet 20 percent of their energy needs with solar energy and half of the solar energy came from roadside panels, officials calculate, about 100 miles worth of panels would do the job.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://egov.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/OIPP/inn_whatsnew.shtml