On Sunday, Sept. 21, 350 Roaring Fork invites the public to celebrate solar power and learn how to take advantage of existing financial incentives to make your home more energy efficient! This informational, fun gathering will be in Chacos Park at 4th and Main from 11am to 1pm as part of nationwide Sun Day events.

Music with local talent, free ice cream, a chance for kids to draw the things they like to do in the sun and information about all the existing financial incentives to help people do solar installations and efficiency renovations will be available!

Carbondale has 245 to 295 days of sun per year! That sun powers the plants that become our food and powers quite a few public buildings as well as businesses and homes. Learn about our solar history: the first town hall in Colorado to have PV, the first educational program in solar technology at CMC and Solar Energy International. Speakers will share the past and help us plan for a future with even more renewable energy.

Presenters include Ken Olson from Sol Energy and a co-founder of Solar Energy International, Soozie Lindbloom will share her experience teaching kids how to wire solar suitcases to send to schools in Masai territory in Kenya so those kids can have computers in their schools. AnaSophia Brown, president of Roaring Fork High’s Environmental Club will bring us up to date on the club’s goals for this year.

CLEER and CORE will provide information about programs that exist to help you make your home more energy efficient and perhaps even add a solar array. You have to act fast because the federal government ends solar incentives Dec. 31, 2025. Businesses have until July to install solar with a tax incentive.

Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and The Third Act has a new book celebrating the worldwide increase in clean energy, “Here Comes the Sun.” He hopes to come this winter to cross-country ski and share more positive information on how fast solar power is growing. Come have some ice cream and join the nation in celebrating clean energy now and in the future!

For a preview of new solar on Colorado farms come to the library Friday, Sept. 19, from 5 to 6:30pm for a documentary on agrivoltaics — mixing solar panels with crops and farm animals.