Richard Polk 1963 Resiliency Epiphany and 60-year Solar History

Hello, I’m Richard Polk. This is the story of my 60-year interest in solar energy and resiliency. In the fifth grade, my interest turned to solar energy because I couldn’t find any interesting books on robots in my elementary school library.

By eighth grade I had developed what turned out to be a lifelong fascination with solar. I received a First Place for my junior high school solar energy science project, attached.

The biggest solar epiphany moment for me was in January 1963, when my new friend George Mathews, a county commissioner and peanut farmer in Americus, Georgia, explained to me, without using the word resiliency, what he thought about when he made the world’s first solar-powered phone call on October 4, 1955.

Mr. Mathews said how important it was that rural areas with unreliable electrical service, where he had family, could now look forward to the comfort and safety of a better connection to the world. The related images attached below from my science project’s report brought me close to the very beginning of solar energy. 

In 2006, as a member of the City Council in Boulder, Colorado, I helped write and approve Boulder's first Climate Action Plan. PDF:Boulder's 2006 Climate Action Plan - City of Boulder . We’ve come a long way in 13 years. While the plan discusses how much corn we can put in our gasoline, it doesn't even contemplate the successes we've achieved with electric vehicles, and even more recently with hydrogen fuel cells. Later in 2006, I proposed the City of Boulder's revolutionary Solar Rebate Ordinance -- see Boulder Solar Ordinance attached below. 

On page 5 of the 2011 Climate Action Plan executive summary, I am pictured in front of my family’s Pedestrian Shops shoe store https://wwwstatic.bouldercolorado.gov/docs/2010-2011-community-guide-to-boulders-climate-action-plan-1-201305081156.pdf . In 2016 Boulder received a “SolSmart Gold” Award for Advancing Solar Energy Growth, including offering grants for solar panels on nonprofit organizations’ buildings that I proposed. https://bouldercolorado.gov/newsroom/sept-23-2016-boulder-receives-solsmart-gold-award-for-advancing-solar-energy-growth

In 2008, our Pedestrian Shops comfortable shoes / walking shoes store in downtown Boulder became the world’s first solar powered shoe store. https://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/03/prweb795314.htm https://footwearplusmagazine.com/2011/04/news/shoesday-tuesdays-eco-efforts-lead-to-green-for-pedestrian-shops/

I continue to serve on the Boulder Solar grant committee, the only member who also serves on the Xcel Energy Renewable Energy Trust’s seven-member RET advisory panel. While serving on the RET, I have been able to help bring a variety of renewable energy features to Boulder County, such as a wind turbine at Thorne Ecological Center and a photovoltaic array to the rooftop of The Dairy Arts Center, where I served on the board for almost 20 years.