Cold Spring Residents See Potential Benefits of Solar Garden

COLD SPRING -- Continuing a story we reported on last week, a solar power company held an informational meeting for residents of Cold Spring about the installation of a solar garden later this year.

Cold Spring Bakery announced last week that they will be powering their business with a solar garden built by SunShare. The solar garden is also available to residents of Pope and Stearns Counties.

"We build these solar gardens and they are off-site," says Matthew Bowers of SunShare. "You don't have to put it on your house, or your business but you can actually subscribe to the gardens and receive credits from Xcel Energy."

"We charge for access to the solar garden but you do see some savings on you bill by switching over to solar power."

Greg Braun of Cold Spring attended the meeting and says the idea of switching to solar power is intriguing.

"It was very interesting and informative," Braun says. "We're thinking about it, we're just going to think about it a little more before going ahead."

Some people at the meeting came ready to sign up to make the switch.

"I think the biggest thing for me is that we're pulling more clean energy-- that's why I'm [making the switch]," says Ione Becker of Cold Spring. "It isn't [just] for my savings, it's for getting the clean energy."

Becker signed up to make the switch to power her home with solar energy which she says is surprisingly easy.

"You don't need to do anything," Becker says. "You sign up and they take care of everything with Xcel -- there isn't much you have to do other than saying 'yes'."

"If you're at all interested in the environment, this is the way to go -- it's one step in the right direction."

If you're interested in the solar garden, you can call 612-345-8881 or visit www.mysunshare.com.