History of the Solar Now! University Event

In 2007, the City of Portland, Energy Trust of Oregon, Solar Oregon and Oregon Department of Energy came together to create Solar Now! – a statewide educational campaign. The goal of the campaign was to build awareness of solar energy solutions and make the process of going solar simpler for Oregonians.

The first Solar Now! University was launched in Pendleton in 2010 in order to help passionate volunteers, organizational leaders, municipalities and solar champions establish local solar outreach programs. The following two years of SNU conferences brought together motivated communities to share solar successes and challenges, and advance solar energy solutions. In 2013, the focus was on featuring experts on solar policy, technology, financing, and community development to help kick start local clean energy strategies.  20014 event in Hillsboro featured tours of Solar World and broke attendance records.  The conference in 2015 was reinvigorated to include over 80% new speakers and several elected officials as keynote speakers.  We received nothing but high praise including a comment from a sustainability advocate at a local government who said, “Solar Oregon and SNU can now go toe-to-toe with any national conference.”  We couldn’t think of higher praise.

The location, dates, and focus of 2016’s Solar Now! University will be announced in early 2016