State Capitol - Olympia, WA
This solar installation effort was a public and private partnership to install the largest array of solar panels on a capitol building in the United States. The Department of General Administration teamed up with Puget Sound Energy (PSE), BP (formerly British Petroleum) and Chelan Public Utility District 1 to fund and install 144 solar panels. The panels are expected to generate 20 kilowatts of power, enough to light the dome and lantern of the Legislative Building from dusk to midnight 
every day. The solar panels are placed on the southern side of the fifth-floor roof and are barely discernible so that they blend in with the historic fixtures of the building.
An educational kiosk, providing streaming data from the project, is installed on the first floor of the building in a lunch room that is used by more than 900 school children who visit the capitol daily during legislative sessions.
Washington State's newly renovated Capitol Building also signed up to convert 100 percent of its electric usage to Green Power, while the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) will convert 25 percent of its electric usage. The state's public buildings are aggressively implementing 2002 executive order to adopt sustainable practices. By participating in PSE's Green Power Program, the Capitol Building will help generate 200,000-kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy a month for the Northwest grid. The WUTC office will add another 2,200 kWh. Combined, they will help generate enough renewable energy to serve more than 200 homes per month.