A few years ago, city resident Dave Strenski led a project to mount solar panels on the roof of the Ypsilanti Food Co-op (pdf), aided by a $5,000 grant. Now, he's upped the ante a bit with two solar projects: the Co-op is applying for a $50,000 grant to add much more solar capacity, and Dave is aiming for City Hall next.

The south face of City Hall is a four-story blank wall, completely unshaded by trees or buildings (there's a sunken parking lot behind City Hall), and with astonishingly few windows on it. Not only does this southern facade make a tempting target simply for the solar exposure, but it would be an excellent way for Ypsilanti to show off. A solar array on that facade (updated pdf) would be visible to everyone entering town from I-94, 20-30 thousand vehicles daily. Additionally, the City could host an energy meter on its website, showing live and archive information on solar yield.

This, of course, takes capital. And mounting solar panels on City Hall, while Jimmy Carter may have approved, is one of those things that probably doesn't count as a "core service" to most people in this age of shrinking government budgets. East-Cross.com suggests a "friends" group to raise some cash, so I've put together a solar panel pledge drive over on Pledgebank.com:

I will donate $50 to the YPSI People's Solar Initiative to install solar panels on City Hall but only if 200 other local people will do the same.

$50 * 200 people = $10,000, which is a respectable amount to throw at any project. Looks like I've got 4 / 200 in the first day the pledge has been up - if you're interested, sign yourself up and help spread the word! I set a one-year deadline for the pledge, but maybe we can make this happen before Heritage Festival.

(p.s. Does anybody know Todd Mundt? I bet if we got him on this project, the pledges would fly in...)