A $2.5 million solar array on Casino Road has already helped about 200 South Everett families pay their energy bills.

The array and a public art installation celebrated their ribbon-cutting Saturday, Sept. 19, at 1226 W. Casino Road, next to Walter E. Hall Park.

Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin, Snohomish County PUD CEO John Haarlow and residents gathered for the opening of El Sol al Alcance de tus Manos, or "The Sun at Your Fingertips."

The 400-kilowatt array sits on 1.75 acres of city land and generates enough electricity per year to power about 30 homes.

The panels started producing power in December 2024, but the PUD delayed the celebration until three local artists finished a large-scale public art installation and the city completed a new pathway beside the site, The Daily Herald reported Sept. 1.

All revenue from the power the PUD purchases goes into the Community Energy Fund, administered by St. Vincent de Paul, to cover emergency bills for income-qualified customers.

The fund has distributed about $40,000 so far and is expected to generate roughly $25,000 per year, according to the PUD.

State and federal grants and tax credits covered more than 80 percent of the project cost, including an $861,814 award from Washington's Clean Energy Fund 3 program, the Lynnwood Times reported.

Because Casino Road carries a high summer electrical load from nearby industrial activity, the panels also help ease pressure on the local grid on the hottest days, a PUD official said.

The installation's name came from neighbors at the 2022 Connect Casino Road Summer Carnival, PUD Commissioner Sid Logan said while emceeing the event. Commissioner Julieta Altamirano-Crosby, who represents District 2, said the PUD wanted a project built with the neighborhood, not placed in it.

Three Everett artists spent more than a year creating the fence-line artwork. Yessica Marquez, a 20-year Everett resident and watercolor artist, built an aluminum hummingbird whose wings become flowers, plus moths and dragonflies formed from recycled PUD wire.

Ruben Trujillo's opening panel features a solar robot leaving a cityscape, assembled from CNC-cut pieces and salvaged PUD metal.

Luisana Hernandez wrote the poems on scrolls introducing each section and created large stained-glass-inspired abstract panels.

Nearly 1,000 treated-wood suns and hands painted by students at Horizon Elementary, the PUD Energy Block Party and Denny Youth Center line the fence, sealed so children can return years later and find their own work.

"This is my community. I live here," Marquez said at the ceremony. "There's more than just me as a brown person being an artist here."

The ceremony also drew Snohomish County Council Chair Megan Dunn, Jennifer Grove, assistant director of energy at the Washington Department of Commerce, and Minister Gerardo Guiza of the Consulate of Mexico in Seattle.

The city built a new ADA-accessible paved pathway, about 1,900 feet long and costing just under $600,000, connecting the Westmont and Holly neighborhoods to Walter E. Hall Park.

Before the trail opened, the park's only entrance was on Casino Road. Katherine Phillips, a capital projects coordinator in the city's parks department, said the land had been an underutilized strip between a city reservoir and a golf practice area.

Councilmember Luis Burbano, whose District 4 includes the site, said the trail connects the Westmont neighborhood with Casino Road and that when communities are linked, residents start looking out for each other. He added that his daughter Hannah will have a shorter walk to a new Walter E. Hall Park playground scheduled to open in late 2027.