In time for spring, the Main Street Solar Store is coming to Saugerties and its proprietor has an ambitious agenda to familiarize Americans with an energy source for the new century.
“It”™s more than a store, its learning experience,” said Debra Goudreau whose goal is to “solarize” the Hudson Valley and give every man, woman, and child the opportunity to integrate solar power into their life. She hopes to open two Main Street Solar Store locations in the Hudson Valley in coming months.
If the reaction of passersby is any indication, she will have a lot of interest in her endeavor. Her storefront at 114 Partition St. is the main thoroughfare through the village and she has placed a sign in the window and begun moving inventory. She is interrupted explaining her plans by passersby who expressed delight in the idea of a solar store and promise to return as soon as the store opens.   Â
Goudreau began understanding the potential and complexities of solar power in 2001. That”™s when she married contractor Marc Goudreau and moved to his farm in Highland. By 2004, after “two years of searching the Internet and talking to distributors,” the Goudreaus installed a hybrid power system on their home consisting of a diesel generator, solar panels and batteries for storage.Â
Goudreau fell in love with the technology. “There are monumental moments in your life; when you get married, have children and the day you install solar.”
She also realized that solar power was still viewed from afar, with hands-on shops extremely rare. “There”™s no place you can go to touch and see solar. It”™s all online. So we need to bring solar power to Main Street America, because America doesn”™t understand it.”
Fueled by her enthusiasm, Debra and her brother-in-law Lucien Goudreau enrolled in the Photovoltaic Practitioner Institute at Ulster BOCES in Port Ewen last spring. They studied Electrical Theory for Renewable Energy Practitioners, Introduction to PV Technology and the PV Installer”™s Course.Â
“If you want to be in the solar business, you can”™t just slap panels up, you have to be educated,” Goudreau said.
Under an arrangement between Ulster BOCES and Vermont based GroSolar, Debra and Lucien interned on the installation of a Habitat for Humanity Home in Albany last summer. They”™ve partnered with Debra”™s husband ,Marc, owner of MG Construction, to form Soleil and Wind Energy Systems L.L.C., a solar and wind installation company.Â
 She says the store will display and sell solar-powered equipment besides photovoltaic panels. Retail solar power product lines have expanded in recent years. There are now solar power backpacks, so that a hiker could power a cell phone or iPod as they move along a path far from power outlets. There are telephone chargers, solar powered flashlights, radios, safari “cooling” hats, garden lights, lighting fixtures and other unique items. More than just a retail store, Goudreau says The Main Street Solar Store will provide an interactive, hands-on, sensory solar learning experience that will educate customers to the multitude of applications for the green technology.   Â
The director of business development for Sunrise Broadcasting in Orange County, Goudreau has spent the last several years promoting other people”™s products and says she wants to apply what she has learned to promoting solar. A native of Goshen, she said she is in the process of locating another Main Street Solar store in that community, one which may open at the same time as the Saugerties location.
