RELI Executive Director Gordian Raacke (orange tie) and several friends from Wales-Darby Inc. demonstrate Veissmann solar-tube collectors during the Long Island leg of Saturday's National Solar Tour.

By Z

Clouds, wind and rain couldn’t muddle moods, erode enthusiasm or dampen dispositions during Saturday’s National Solar Tour.

Sponsored by the American Solar Energy Society, the annual tour invites visitors to explore homes and businesses taking environmental stewardship to the next level via the latest efficiency technologies and concepts. Several New Media clients had a hand in the tour’s local leg, including Renewable Energy Long Island – which sponsored the tour on LI – and Wales-Darby Inc., which highlighted its ecologically sound plumbing, heating and HVAC wares at National Grid’s Melville hub.

Hundreds of visitors braved Saturday’s soggy weather to check out the tour’s 75 Long Island stops – comprised mostly of residences, with a few businesses and extremely impressive municipal facilities sprinkled in. Despite the rain, “the message of solar energy was delivered loud and clear,” according to RELI Program Director Kathy Cunningham.

“Spirits were high,” Kathy said Tuesday. “The tour visitors were all very enthusiastic and all of our solar ambassadors were just wonderful.”

In fact, the inclement weather might have aided the tour’s ultimate purpose, according to RELI Executive Director Gordian Raacke. “The rainy Solar Tour was a perfect demonstration of the fact that renewable-energy systems can lower your utility bills even when it rains,” Gordian noted. “I’m sure our solar ambassadors were asked many times ‘does it work when it rains?’ And of course, the answer is ‘yes.”

Among the popular nonresidential stops: the 10-kilowatt solar array and “shellfish aquaculture facility” at the Town of Hempstead’s Department of Conservation and Waterways facility and National Grid’s Melville center, where Islandia-based Wales-Darby was among the progressive businesses showcasing cutting-edge efficiency products.

Wales-Darby – a longtime distribution linchpin for LI plumbing, heating and HVAC contractors – has pushed renewability to the forefront by championing energy-efficient systems and educating contractors about the company’s many environmentally friendly options.

“The Solar Tour was the perfect place for Wales-Darby to share the latest plumbing and climate-control technologies with an audience interested in learning about them,” said Wales-Darby President Brian Darby. “There are so many wonderful products out there now to heat our homes and conserve our water and keep us comfortable without sacrificing the environment, products that even save us money in the long run. We were thrilled to share that.”

While still basking in the afterglow of Saturday’s tour, RELI – like any good forward-thinking enterprise – is already looking ahead. The group is busily weighing ideas for a possible “Solar Soiree” later this year, and according to Kathy has already developed some interesting ideas for the 2010 National Solar Tour.

“There are a lot of wind-powered options out there now, through LIPA programs and otherwise,” Kathy said. “We’re anticipating having more residential wind-power installs on next year’s tour.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 4:11 pm and is filed under New Media's World, Tales From The Rolodex. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.