BRS bitter-enders and former employees and consultants at our bitter-sweet, but really fun, goodbye party in Reno. (fb)

And now the end is near, and so we face, the final curtain. Well, sort of. As many of our friends will already know, Black Rock Solar is being reincarnated into Black Rock Labs, which will focus on sustainability efforts at Burning Man and similar events. It will take a while for BRL to get up and running so sadly all the BRS staff including myself have either been, or very soon will be, laid off. Our few remaining staff are currently tying up the administrative and technical loose ends on our final projects, clearing out our offices, and packing up some of our tools and equipment for the future use of BRL. Our project manuals have been passed on to former BRS employee Travis Miller at Sunworks, the last remnant of the once-thriving Northern Nevada solar industry, who will be handling warranty and other trouble-shooting/repair calls for our arrays. With the slashing of NV Energy’s solar incentives, our business model of building very low cost — and often free — solar power for tribes, non-profits, schools and small towns in Nevada is no longer viable. All of us are sad that we’ve hit the end of the road, but are very proud of what we’ve done. Since 2007 we built 112 solar arrays throughout Nevada, totaling 7,600 kilowatts of clean energy capacity. That’s about $26 million worth of projects which will save our clients nearly a million dollars every year for the next couple of decades. We also did 46 lighting efficiency retrofits for our clients. Good work indeed. On a personal level I’d like to thank the BRS board for hiring me and supporting me over the past six years, but in particular I want to thank all my dedicated, brilliant colleagues who did so much good over the years. While many deserve thanks, I’m especially grateful for my fellow bitter-enders who have stayed on to get our last projects wrapped up with typical professionalism: Dave “Quiet Earp” Lasky, who has been with BRS since our very first array out on the Black Rock Desert in 2007 and who opinion polls suggest may be the most-loved construction boss in the whole of the United States; our electrician and next Governor of Nevada, Big Eli Smith; our king of admin Matt Sheets; our crew-lead, Gary “Bull-Rider” Harjo, and our band of brothers, Mark(us) Craig, Felipe Mares, Nathan Lovett Jr., Winston Sam, Graeme Hartnett, and Mark Cappel. And last of all, the person who will be in charge of turning out the lights, the person who made sure we got paid and stayed legal, and my office-mate for the past six years, Michelle “Jalapeña” Ochoa. Thank you and good night Patrick “Paddy” McCully, the once-upon-a-time Executive Director of Black Rock Solar (fb)