Blue Mountain Solar, Inc. is a family-owned business specializing in the consulting, design, and installation of utility-connected or remote solar electric systems. We are located in Eastern Oregon, at the base of the Wallowa Mountains, and with a view of the Blue Mountains across the beautiful Grande Ronde Valley.

In 1992, we installed our home system, a grid-connected 2 kW of research modules from Mobile Solar, with a Pacific Inverter.  The inverter never worked well here, and we  replaced it with an Omnion, and later upgraded to a Sunny Boy.  By 2012, module prices had dropped so low, and our Mobile Solar modules had degraded, that we took down the old system and replaced it with SolarWorld PV modules and Enphase inverters.  The attached photos show the old array coming down (you can see delamination on the top left module); the Mobile Solar label (a bit of history, as Mobile got out of the PV business in the 1990s); and Kay cleaning the modules as we put up the new array.  The Enphase inverters can be seen, already installed and ready for the modules to go over them.

Kay Firor

Kay graduated from engineering school in 1978, spent 4 years as a PV research scientist at the Solar Energy Research Institute (now the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL) 8 years working in PV systems research at Pacific Gas and Electric Co, and then started Blue Mountain Energy as a consulting company in 1989. Blue Mountain Energy later expanded into Blue Mountain Solar, Inc. in 2007. As well as working on Blue Mountain Solar projects, she is Manager of Finance and Accounting. Kay is retired from teaching mathematics at Eastern Oregon University, and now spends more time playing with horses.  She serves on the Board of the non-profit therapy provider Clover Haven Equine Center.

Kent Osterberg

Kent graduated from engineering school in 1977, and earned a Masters degree in Computer Science in 1984. He headed up the calibrations laboratory for Pacific Gas and Electric Co for many years, and got roped into involvement in PV technology when he met Kay Firor. Kent is Blue Mountain Solar’s VP of Engineering, as well as heading up all ordering of equipment and systems installations. When he’s not working on PV projects, Kent likes hiking, river rafting, and model airplanes. He is treasurer for the non-profit Cove Education Foundation.