It takes a long time to teach a building to photosynthesize, but we’ve done it!
The RE Store warehouse roof is now home to 98 brand-new solar panels, joining the 40 panels that have been soaking up Bellingham’s sunshine there for years. That’s 138 panels in all, with an annual energy savings of about $11,000.
We talk a lot about closing the loop and building circular economies: salvaging what is useful, giving things a second life, and continually finding ways to be more sustainable. Thanks to partnerships with Puget Sound Energy and Ecotech Solar, this project has propelled our progress toward building a circular economy hub in the heart of the Fountain District. This solar array expansion joins other sustainable features found throughout our campus: the Community Freedge that — in partnership with Sustainable Connections — redistributes surplus food, the RE Patch community garden that fills the Freedge, the Revision Division skillshare space, and usable manufacturing materials salvaged and sold as part of our Manufacturing Waste Diversion program.
This new solar array was installed by our friends at Ecotech Solar, the same local team that installed our original 40 panels. Coming back to a partner who already knows our building made the project smoother, and it means the old and new systems were designed to work side by side. We’re grateful to the Ecotech crew for their careful work on the roof, and for sticking with us through planning, permitting and installation. We can’t recommend their team more highly.
Roughly half the cost of the project is covered by Puget Sound Energy’s Solar Grant program. RE Sources was one of 12 organizations across PSE’s service area awarded a 2026 Solar Grant, alongside Whatcom County neighbors like the YWCA Bellingham and the Nooksack Valley Food Bank. The program is funded by PSE customers who choose to join the utility’s voluntary Green Power program. To everyone who opts in: thank you.
The other half is covered by a federal clean energy incentive for nonprofits. Together, these two sources mean the new panels come at very little net cost to our organization.
Every dollar we don’t spend on electricity is a dollar that goes toward our mission. Lower energy bills mean more support for keeping good materials out of the landfill, expanding our workforce development opportunities, and for the environmental education and advocacy work of RE Sources across Whatcom and Skagit counties.
It’s also a natural fit for who we are. The RE Store exists to get the most out of what we already have, whether that’s a salvaged door, a reclaimed beam or the roof over our heads. Putting that roof to work generating clean, local power is reuse at its best.
Coming Soon!
In related exciting news, The RE Store/RE Sources was chosen as the site of a new cooperative EV Car Share through a grant facilitated by the City of Bellingham. We’ll have news in early 2027 about when the Car Cooperative will be up and running, ease of joining and the benefits, including the installation of an additional EV car charger just for customer use.
Many thanks to our partners in this project!
