Grainey Family Home

The Grainey Family Home is the first solar project approved on a home approved by the City of Salem in Salem’s Gayety Hill/Bush’s Pasture Park Historic District. The project shows that solar energy panels are compatible with historic homes and with the character of the Historic District. The historic review conducted by the city is a public process with opportunity for public comment on the proposal. All comments filed on this project were in favor of the project. I also had the support of all my neighbors within a two block radius of the home in the Historic District.

The system has a 6.4 kw capacity with 18 solar panels produced by Sunpower. A 14 kw Tesla battery provides backup power, and is utilized with other home batteries, by our local utility, Portland General Electric, for its grid stability efforts.. The system was installed by Earthlight Technologies, of Silverton, Oregon. Our home is an older home which required some electric upgrades. Earthlight did a wonderful job of handling all those issues so that the solar system works perfectly.

The home will be available for touring, including the solar panels, battery, invertor and related equipment, on Saturday October 7, 2023 from 2-4 pm.