NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Saturday, June 4, 2022
OTEC to build solar farm in La Grande
By ANDREW CUTLER
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Oregon
Trail Electric Cooperative’s
already mostly carbon-free
power supply is about to get
a little greener.
The Baker City-based
cooperative will begin work
this fall on a 500-panel
community solar project near
the cooperative’s Gekeler
Lane substation outside La
Grande. Construction on the
project is expected to take
just one month to complete
and put into service, accord-
ing to the cooperative, which
serves about 23,000 custom-
ers in four Eastern Oregon
counties.
“Our highest priority is
to serve our membership so
we put together this project,”
Charlie Tracy, the coopera-
tive’s director of engineer-
ing, said. “It’s on property
here in Union County. It’s
in La Grande. So we’re
excited about it. That’s also
the district where we’ve seen
the most interest, so we’re
excited to be able to have it be
local and have a member be
able to drive by the place that
they know that their power is
coming from.”
This is the utility’s first
solar project.
“You can’t really say
you’re an expert in solar
farms until you build one,
Joseph Hathaway/Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative
This field along U.S. Highway 30 outside La Grande will be home to Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative’s 500-panel community
solar project. The project is slated to be built and operational this fall.
right? So a big part of it is to
gain expertise and become
experts in the changing
landscape,” Tracy said. “In
another year, we’ll really
know quite a lot about it and I
feel like we do now, but this is
part of that learning process.”
Oregon Trail members
will have the option of help-
ing finance the project by
buying subscriptions. When
the solar project begins
generating clean energy,
members will start receiving
a credit on their utility bill for
their portion of the electricity
generated.
“We meter it just like we
would a house or a load, and
then we divide the output, so
MORE INFORMATION
For more information on the Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative’s
solar farm, visit the cooperative’s website at otec.coop.
the energy that’s generated
within a given month, we
divide it up into portions,”
Tracy said. “Those portions
are sold to a member as a
subscription. So essentially,
they pre-purchase the output
of the array and that output
is then applied to their bill to
subtract off, essentially, their
usage.”
Subscriptions, which are
on a first-come, first-served
basis, will cost $250 per share
Forecast for Pendleton Area
| Go to AccuWeather.com
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
Cloudy with
occasional rain
Mostly cloudy,
showers; breezy
Breezy with clouds
and sun
Partly sunny and
nice
Mainly cloudy
69° 57°
70° 52°
74° 59°
75° 55°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
68° 51°
75° 56°
72° 56°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
74° 53°
78° 58°
78° 60°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
61/56
56/51
70/54
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
65/57
Lewiston
64/58
75/60
Astoria
61/57
Pullman
Yakima 70/54
63/55
62/56
Portland
Hermiston
67/60
The Dalles 74/59
Salem
Corvallis
65/56
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
65/53
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
67/57
67/53
65/52
Ontario
70/55
Caldwell
Burns
73°
55°
79°
51°
99° (2007) 34° (1929)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
67/58
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
69/56
0.31"
0.32"
0.09"
6.11"
2.23"
4.47"
Today
Sun.
SSW 6-12
S 6-12
WSW 10-20
WSW 10-20
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
63/47
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
5:08 a.m.
8:40 p.m.
9:22 a.m.
12:30 a.m.
First
Full
Last
New
June 7
June 14
June 20
June 28
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 102° in El Centro, Calif. Low 27° in Bodie State Park, Calif.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
ice
50s
60s
cold front
E AST O REGONIAN
— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
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80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
Wallowa County Chieftain
FLORA — The historic
Flora School is “Back in
the Saddle Again” this year,
after taking time off for the
pandemic. The school will be
open for its traditional School
Days from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturday, June 4.
Visitors are urged to
come, see, learn and live in
the past including dressing in
an “Old West” style, accord-
ing to a press release.
Part of living in the past
begins early, as the forge
will be fired up and ready for
the third-annual blacksmith
contest at 8 a.m.
D e m o n s t r a t io n s of
pioneer skills generally start
at 10 a.m. and continue until
3 or 4 p.m. Some skills and
activities scheduled include
grafting heirloom apple trees,
story time, town tours with
draft mules, cleaning cast
iron after lunch and sewing
bean bags to name a few.
One of the highlights of
the day is the Camp Chili
Cookoff. Contestants should
be signed up, pay a $5 fee and
be ready to cook at 11 a.m.
They must be done by 2 p.m.
For $1, visitors taste-test each
chili in order to decide the
winner of the contest. Contes-
tants may only have the beans
cooked prior to the start. For
more information about the
cookoff, call or text Shannon
Wiedeman at 541-263-0132.
Dutch oven implements
are the focus of this year’s
Fire destroys Jeep, but
doesn’t spread to forest
BAKER CITY — A Jeep Cherokee was
destroyed in a fire, but no one was hurt and the
flames didn’t spread into the nearby forest on
Saturday, May 28 on the Marble Creek Pass
road about 9 miles west of Baker City.
The fire happened a little before 8 a.m.
Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash, who
responded to the 911 call from the Jeep’s
owner, Pat Thomas, said Thomas was alone
in the vehicle.
Ash said Thomas, who was planning to
go for a mountain bike ride, noticed smoke
coming from the engine compartment of the
early 1990s vehicle.
Thomas parked in a turnout beside Marble
Creek, about a mile before the road leading to
the picnic area.
Flames had melted the hood latch, Ash said.
The cause of the fire isn’t known, he said.
Thomas called 911 at 7:54 a.m., according
to the Baker County Dispatch Center.
Ash said that when he arrived the Jeep was
“fully engulfed” in flames, and it wasn’t possi-
ble to douse the fire with a handheld extin-
guisher.
Sean Lee, chief of the Baker Rural Fire
District, arrived with a tanker truck and was
110s
high
low
Local home
delivery
Savings
(cover price)
$10.75/month
50 percent
52 weeks
$135
42 percent
26 weeks
$71
39 percent
13 weeks
$37
36 percent
EZPay
Single copy price:
$1.50 Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
Baker County Sheriff’s Office/Contributed Photo
A fire that started in the engine compartment
destroyed a Jeep Cherokee along Marble
Creek Pass road on May 28, 2022. The driver,
who was alone in the vehicle, was not hurt.
able to control the fire, Ash said.
Ash said it was fortunate that the fire
happened now, after a period of cool, rainy
weather, rather than later in the summer, when
the flames might have spread into the forest.
“We’re lucky it’s early in the season, and it
was really wet out there,” he said.
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blacksmith contest. The
tools will be auctioned off at
the end of the day along with
presentation of winners.
Dick Phillips, a Walla Walla,
Washington, blacksmith
from days gone by, will
judge this year’s competi-
tion. All metals are provided.
For more information, call
or text Nathan Thompson at
509-876-7812.
The event is part of an
ongoing effort to raise money
to restore the school building
to its 1915 glory.
For more i n for ma-
tion, refer to Flora School’s
website, www.floraschool.
org, Facebook page, Insta-
gram, YouTube channel,
email floraschool@tds.net or
call 541-828-7010.
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Flora School Days ‘Back in
the Saddle Again’ Saturday
WINDS (in mph)
70/57
64/48
0.65"
0.65"
0.17"
9.31"
4.02"
7.01"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 60/48
66/59
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
69/57
73/59
71°
56°
76°
50°
98° (2007) 34° (1918)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
66/54
Aberdeen
58/49
68/54
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
66/56
and are available to anyone
living or doing business in
the OTEC service territory,
which includes Baker, Union,
Grant and Harney counties.
“We broke it up into what
we think are affordable, small
portions because that’s one of
the things we’ve heard from
members is roof-top solar has
an extremely high upfront
cost,” Tracy said. “What
the community solar project
brings to people is the ability
to buy into it at smaller incre-
ments — $250 per portion.”
The 500 panels will gener-
ate approximately 200 kilo-
watts of electricity that will
be distributed along OTEC’s
system.
“We’re hoping that if
shares sell quickly that we
can expand it,” Tracy said.
“Ultimately, we’d like to have
one in each of our service
territories.”
The subscription will be
good for 20 years and can
be moved around within the
cooperative’s service terri-
tory or can be gifted to some-
one.
“Let’s say you move out
of territory, you can gift it
to your friend, neighbor or
kids,” Joseph Hathaway, the
cooperative’s communica-
tions manager, said. “That
share will still continue up
until 20 years.”
Tracy said members
will see no increase in their
monthly bill to pay for the
cost of the solar farm, the
costs are covered by the
members who purchase
subscriptions.
More than 94% of the
power Oregon Trail Electric
Cooperative receives from
Bonneville Power Adminis-
tration is carbon-free, with
about 85% of it being from
hydroelectric.
“We’ve got a phenome-
nal, enviable power supply, as
good or better than anywhere
in the world in terms of its
low environmental impact
and climate change carbon
impact,” Tracy said. “So we
feel really good about that
and really positive about
it. But beyond that, we’re
working on this project to
supply an even more local
and even more renewable
power supply that a lot of our
members have asked for.”
Hathaway said the solar
project came from some of
the surveying the coopera-
tive has done over the years.
“I think the last survey we
saw, it was around 20% said
that they would like to have
that solar option,” he said.
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