Solar tour slated for Sept. 29 through Oct.1

The 2017 GEO Fall Tour slated for Sept. 29, 30 and Oct. 1 will give participants an inside look into homes and businesses that use green technologies.

The Green Energy Ohio Tour is an annual event that is part of the American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar tour.

Mentor residents Tom Rapini and Valerie Garrett has been running the East-of-Cleveland portion of the guided tour and open house for more than six years. Their home has been on the tour since 1993. “The purpose of the tour is to allow people to

visit sites that have adopted wind, solar, electric cars, energy efficiency, etc. and speak person-to-person to the owners,” Rapini said. “That way they can learn about the technologies, the benefits, the costs and the obstacles.”

The public has the choice between making a self-guided tour or taking a free bus tour. Visit greenenergyohio.org to choose a guided tour or an open house tour site.

Reservations for the bus tour can be made by calling Garrett at 440-231-0842.

Rapini said there are three

guided bus tours in Northeast Ohio:

• The West bus leaves from the Willoughby Municipal Pool on Sept. 29 at 9 a.m. and returns at 4 p.m. It goes to sites in Solon, Chagrin Falls, Mayfield, Mentor and Eastlake and includes a free lunch.

• The North bus leaves from the Mentor Senior Center on Sept. 30 at 9 a.m. and returns at 4 p.m. It goes to sites in Mentor, then east to sites in Mayfield, Cleveland Heights, Shaker and Euclid and includes a free lunch.

• The East bus leaves from Lake Metroparks Farmpark on Sept. 30 at 9 a.m. and returns at 4 p.m. It goes to sites in Chardon, Leroy, Jefferson, Farmdale, and Huntsburg,

and includes a free lunch.

This year’s bus tours are sponsored by Geauga Countybased Fairmount Santrol, which is among several commercial sites on the tour.

More information about the open house tours is available on the website. No registration in advance is required.

“We hope that once they learn how much more affordable these technologies have become (especially solar panels and electric cars), they will consider implementing them on their homes and businesses so that more of us produce and use clean renewable energy,” Rapini said. “The country and the planet will be better for it.”