The City Council in Beaverton, Ore. launched its Solar Beaverton program, a fixed-price, consumer-driven solarization program, earlier this week.

The city of 87,000 residents had tremendous results with a short pilot program in 2010 and decided to adopt it as an official city initiative, said Solar Beaverton director Cindy Tatham.

“Other cities have done things like this,” Tatham said. “The difference with our program is that it’s city-led. This is a brave move for a city to stand up and say ‘this is important, and we want to do this.’”

The program has had the full support and backing from the city’s mayor Denny Doyle, Tatham said.

Beaverton City Council voted on Feb. 15 to contract with LiveLight Energy for the program.

The company stood out above 12 others competing for the city’s solarization contract.

“We were looking for a company that offered community programs,” Tatham said. “We wanted to know what they were going to do for the community, because we’re doing a lot for them, really.”

Beaverton worked with SolarCity for its pilot program, which started in the summer and finished at the end of the year. The goal was to get 50 families to apply for solar installations.

In fewer than six months, the town went from a lifetime total of five residential solar applications to 67, Tatham said.

“The idea was to see if people in Beaverton were interested in solar,” Tatham said. “We’d never really had a conversation in this city about solar before.”

Most of the new solar applications during the pilot program went through the city’s stream-lined process and used SolarCity as its installer, according to local news articles. Just a handful shopped around and chose a different vendor.

In choosing an installer for the long-term program, Tatham and Rebecca Fitzsimmons, an AmeriCorps volunteer working with the office for a year, interviewed dozens of companies and learned a lot.

They knew they wanted a vendor who bought locally as much as possible and focused on education and community involvement.

In the end, Tatham said LiveLight had a killer proposal.

In addition to having the full backing of solar-panel manufacturer SolarWorld, located in Hillsboro, Ore., the company offers community education sessions about the technology and the tax credits. They also provide a schools program, where solar experts will visit with students. They provide energy audits for interested customers and donated a solar canopy for the community farmer’s market.

Tatham said Solar Beaverton will focus on residential development and is reaching out specifically to the 750 apartment complexes and residential developments with swimming pools. The program will also reach out to businesses, she said.

SolarBeaverton’s goal is to get 220 new applications for solar installations.

“It’s a big goal,” Tatham said. “It’s the largest goal in the state.”

Image courtesy of LiveLight Energy.