Solar panels installed on Quixote Village tiny homes will save nonprofit thousands per year
Kirk Haffner knew it’d be a risk taking on a solar installation project for free. South Sound Solar is used to working with nonprofits and other housing providers in the region, but Quixote Village posed unique challenges.
With 30 tiny homes and a large community building, coverting the village to one solar power system was a feat like none other — all while footing a $30,000 bill.
Haffner joined other housing leaders in the region Friday, Nov. 18 at Quixote Village on Olympia’s Mottman Road to celebrate all 31 solar panel systems successfully being connected to the grid.
The tiny house village provides permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness. It’s owned and operated by Quixote Communities, a nonprofit in the region, and has been open since 2013.
Haffner choked up while speaking in front of a small crowd, saying he had faith the project would work out.
“It’s been about two years in the making from the time we said ‘it’s a go,’ to getting it online,” he said. “Even during the cloudy weather we had generation, so we’re good to go.”
The project was funded in part by a $78,000 grant from the city of Olympia, as well as grants from PSE, the Squaxin Island Tribe and Tides Foundation.
Each tiny house is outfitted with four solar panels, and the community building has 86, bringing the total to 206. Each tiny house hosts one person and their home generates 1 kilowatt of power. In total, the system generates 66 kilowatts.
Outfitting the village with solar panels will save it an estimated $551,000 over the next 40 years, as well as reduce its carbon footprint by 58,000 pounds of CO2 emissions, according to a news release from Olympia Community Solar. That’s equal to planting 705 trees a year, or not driving 106,000 miles. And the panels were designed in Washington state.
Mason Rolph with Olympia Community Solar said the team started out two years ago with a vision that clean energy can be leveraged to improve the quality of life for those living in Quixote Village.
He said they first were taken aback by the size of the project, even though it’s in total the smallest project the nonprofit has done. A system of 31 different solar panel arrays is pretty unheard of, he said.
“But rather than dissuade us, we took a leap from one of the oldest novels in the world and from the namesake of this village, ‘Don Quixote,’ and as Miguel de Cervantes wrote, ‘Perhaps to be too practical is madness,’” Rolph said.
Shannon Glenn with Puget Sound Energy said over the past four years PSE has awarded more than $3 million to nonprofits and other organizations for solar projects. She said they’re happy to provide financial support to projects that help those most in need in the community.
Olympia’s Community Development Block Grant program specialist Anastasia Everett said the city is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and supporting efforts toward clean, renewable energy sources. She said they’re invested in funding the fight against climate change, and that this won’t be the last solar project they have their hands in.
Colleen Carmichael, the village’s executive director, said everything she and other members of the board do, they do to benefit the community.
“That’s why we’re here, and that’s what drives all of our decisions and our want to make things better,” Carmichael said. “When other people in the community come together and can celebrate that idea with us, it means more than you can imagine to us and the people we’re privileged to serve.”
