Dave Strenski, founder and volunteer coordinator of Solar Ypsi, the network of solar installations around Ypsilanti that's becoming a worldwide household name, will bring solar to the students and other concerned alternative energy enthusiasts at a
seminar at Eastern Michigan University.
As a guest speaker contributing to EMU's Creative Scientific Inquiry Experience program, Strenski will explain the economics of solar power and how it works. The seminar is open to the public and will be held at Strong Auditorium from 4-5 p.m. on November 30.
A commercial Google filmed on
Solar Ypsi and projects of that ilk in the Detroit area has garnered over 210,000 hits on YouTube since its airing last month, Strenski says. Hits have come from every U.S. state and worldwide, from Cyprus to the Seychelles Islands.
And advice-seekers have filled Strenski's e-mail in-box:
"'How do I make a freestanding cellphone charger, how do I get panels installed in Haiti?' Some guy wanted to make solar panels and take that to Africa and show people how to make their own solar panels; all kinds of really off-the-wall questions," he says. "And I try to answer all of them."
Solar Ypsi's capabilities are still growing. To go with the ongoing expansion plans for the
Ypsilanti Food Co-op, Strenski is figuring out how to install another row of solar panels on the roof.
He's got bigger things on his mind, too.
Along with Brian Tell, president of Toledo-based
Shade Plex, a maker of flexible solar-electric building fabrics, Strenski is looking into purchasing defunct local properties, placing solar installations there, selling the power generated back to the utility (DTE, in the case of Ypsilanti) and then re-investing the proceeds into property enhancements.
"From a philosophical point it's interesting," he notes. "Could you use a solar farm or a solar installation, or the revenue from a solar installation to not only pay itself back but also to renovate an old industrial site?"
We'll see. Other than the environmental give-back, the payback to communities could be off the charts.
Source: Dave Strenski, founder and volunteer coordinator of Solar Ypsi
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
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