Texas Solar Energy Society

Solar News of Note

1 WEEK!! Join TXSES and Austin Energy ONLINE for our 24th annual Cool House Tour! This year’s first-ever virtual tour features an urban accessory dwelling, a rural homestead & an affordable #multifamily community! All proceeds benefit TXSES 👍 👍 👍            Save your seat! RSVP TODAY!

The 25th Annual National Solar Tour is going virtual! The American Solar Energy Society & Solar United Neighbors team up for a week of virtual solar events and tours September 28-October 4. MORE

We give a TXSES-size shout out to Austin Energy for being a Smart Electric Power Alliance Utility Business Model Player of the Year for its 2030 Resource Plan & for ensuring LMI populations have access to community solar. Well done!!

Plano Solar Advocates explain the abstruse nuisance clause in Texas Property Code Sec. 202.010(e) that can interfere with homeowners who want to install solar. Dan Lepinski, an adviser to North Texas Renewable Energy Group, provides a letter if an HOA is citing the nuisance clause to prevent homeowners from installing solar. More

TXSES Impact

The September issue of the Solar Reflector is out! Here’s a peek:

• Chair’s Corner: Green Building & Cool House Tours in Texas
  Green building is foundational to and interwoven with the widespread adoption of distributed solar. The current issue of the Solar Reflector focuses on green building: the requirements for residential green building certification, accessory dwelling units, and solar home tours, both locally and nationally.
• 2020 Cool House Tour Goes Totally Virtual. Former TXSES Executive Director Lucy Stolzenburg gives a historical rundown of how the Cool House Tour evolved from its early beginnings in 1992 to the wildly popular event it is today.
• Solar Homes Tour in Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex Oct 3.    This year, the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) National Solar Tour is featuring more than 60 locations nationwide, including homes and businesses in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Rosa Orenstein, J.D., Executive Director of the North Texas Renewable Energy Group (NTREG) talks about what NTREG has planned for its 2020 Virtual Tour.
• National Solar Tour 2020 Goes All Virtual! For a quarter-century, the American Solar Energy (ASES) has organized and delivered the National Solar Tour, the largest grassroots solar event in the U.S. This year’s all-virtual tour is being extended beginning September 28 and running through the official tour weekend, October 3 and 4.
• From Software to Solar: The Need for Diversity in the Clean Energy Workforce. How is the solar workforce faring in diversity, inclusion and equity? Katherine Cheema Burke, former tech influencer turned solar industry leader, shares her experience as one of a very few females in leadership in either industry, but she was particularly surprised at the paucity of diversity in the solar workforce.
• Build Small; Live Large. With more than 30 years’ experience, Barley Pfeiffer Architecture’s experience building Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) showcases that while these unique, smaller structures cost less to build, they don’t sacrifice comfort or livability. By Alan Barley, Barley Pfeiffer Architecture.

• The Path to LEED Certification in the Built Environment. LEED, Leadership for Energy Efficiency and Design provides a framework for healthy, highly efficient and cost-saving green buildings. While using LEED can seem daunting to the uninitiated, there are general rules and guidelines to help anyone interested in sustainability in the built environment. Guest editorial by Jonathan Kraatz, Executive Director USGBC/Texas and Robert Pegues, Quality Assurance Manager, Single Family Division, TexEnergy | Us-EcoLogic