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A 12.5-acre stretch of land on NE 82nd Avenue that once served as a rock quarry and later a dumping ground for debris from the construction of Interstate 205 is being transformed into a community solar project, nature sanctuary and future wildlife hospital. Construction is already underway on the solar portion, an 800-kilowatt array expected to help up to 140 low-income East Portland households save money on their electricity bills.
Bird Alliance of Oregon purchased the lot at 2800 NE 82nd Avenue, across the street from McDaniel High School, in 2024, according to OPB. The nonprofit, which advocates for birds, animals and projects that benefit the natural environment, planned the site for both an animal hospital and a nature sanctuary from the outset, according to the seed reporting from Axios. The solar array itself will occupy a two-acre section of that property, per KXL, which also confirmed the array’s 800 kW capacity.
The project is being built through a partnership between Bird Alliance of Oregon, APANO and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, the station’s report notes. Seven arrays of solar panels are planned for the site, and the system is scheduled to begin creating energy in February 2027, according to APANO.
Eligible subscribers must be customers of Pacific Power and fall at or below 80% of the State Median Income, per the same APANO page. Enrolled households won’t pay anything out of pocket; instead, the array will feed power into the local grid while each subscription generates a financial credit that lowers that household’s bill, the KXL report explains.
Those credits could add up. Bird Alliance of Oregon estimates the project could knock as much as 40% off eligible households’ electricity bills. Savings could reach around $300 a year, and APANO projects a combined $900,000 in savings over the array’s 20-year lifetime, OPB reported. APANO is holding workshops to walk applicants through eligibility, including one planned for Tuesday at Roseway Heights Middle School, 7334 NE Siskiyou St., starting at 6:30pm, according to Axios.
The solar array is just one piece of a much larger vision for the site. Bird Alliance of Oregon plans to build a new Wildlife Care Center there that will more than double the size of its current facility and provide capacity to treat more than 6,000 animals a year, according to the Bird Alliance of Oregon. That hospital will relocate from Northwest Portland, while other operations at the organization’s existing sanctuary will continue as normal, the nonprofit says on its property FAQ page.
The broader site is also planned to include an outdoor classroom and an eastside education hub, per Bird Alliance of Oregon. Once complete, the sanctuary is expected to include four acres of native habitat and walking trails, according to Axios‘s earlier reporting on the site. Community members have already pitched in: more than 100 volunteers helped plant 540 native trees and shrubs there, as reported by KATU.
The project arrives as Portland pours more than $60 million into revitalizing the broader 82nd Avenue corridor through its Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund, OPB reported. It will be the seventh community solar site funded by that program, following projects like PDX Community Solar in the Cully neighborhood, which began delivering power to 150 homes last year in a collaboration between the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, the Port of Portland and Verde, according to Axios’s earlier coverage. That Cully project, built on a three-acre site with more than 2,200 panels, was designed to cut energy bills by 30% to 45% for about 150 qualified low-income residents, OPB reported.
Statewide, Oregon’s Community Solar Program has grown steadily since launching in 2020. Its Low-Income Facilitator has verified and referred more than 2,400 low-income households to community solar projects, generating more than $250,000 in collective savings, according to the Oregon Public Utility Commission. Still, regulators have flagged ongoing project-development and interconnection delays as a concern for the program, the commission noted, even as the state’s Department of Energy awards grants for community solar projects.
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