Over the past two weekends, more than 100,000 people took tours of solar and green homes and buildings as part of the National Solar homes Tour, an event organized by the American Solar Energy Society (ASES). The tour offers the public a chance to experience first-hand how people are using solar in their homes and lives as a means to reduce their carbon footprint and is helping more United States citizens decide to adopt solar.

The event, now in its 15th year, is the world’s largest grassroots solar event, and its growth has been explosive in the past few years. The amount of tours nearly tripled from 2009 to 2010, according to Terri Steele, a spokesperson for the National Solar Tour. And some states held a plethora of events; for instance, there were 242 tours in Ohio this year, she said.

“People can read and hear about solar, but until they talk to the home and business owners [that have installed solar], people don’t really understand what a no-brainer it is to go solar,” said Steele. “This year has been a resounding success across the board.”

Among the successes she counted were the number of tours that came on line this year and how many different ways people are using solar to provide heat and energy for their homes, she said.

“The word has really gotten out. This was the first year they [event organizers] really used social media to get the word out,” she said. “It’s the first time all 50 states have aligned in support of the tour.”

In all, over 695 events were held in conjunction with the American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar Tour, Steele said. This year the tours were expected to bring in roughly 165,000 people across the country, Puerto Rico, and even northern Mexico. But it’s still too early to get real figures on actual overall attendance, because the volunteers, businesses and home owners across the country are still tallying and submitting their attendance figures and other information to their regional groups and the National Solar Tour.

The solar tours are an important tool to help show the public the advantages and costs of solar.

“There have been some studies into the conversion rate for those who become interested and committed to buying solar in the next year,” Steele said. And the studies are showing that the tours are helping people decide to go solar.

“Solar is the one solution that truly serve people of all political persuasions,” she said.

The Tour of Solar Homes in Greater Washington DC is in its 20th year and continues to grow, both in the number of sites and technologies being exhibited.

“The first year we had two dinky homes with solar hot water panels on them, it was boring. Now we’ve got straw, solar, radiant floor heating, rain barrels—everything you could think of,” said Charlie Garlow, the event organizer.

The tour encompassed a highly populous region, including the nation’s Capitol, as well as parts of Maryland and Virginia.

“Last year I think we had about 1,200 visitors. We’re expecting more like 1,500 this year. There’s a lot of competing things,” he said prior to the event. For instance, there was the march on Washington with progressives and labor unions this weekend, but they were still expecting a large turnout, he explained. On Monday, he said it was too early to give attendance figures, but expected that attendance was inline with expectations.

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Pictured: Is this a solar installation? A sculpture? Some kind of rudimentary device that predicts Super Bowl winners? Who knows. But it was on display at the National Solar Tour.