Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Dave Roper surveys the landscape outside the solar greenhouse he designed as part of the YMCA of Virginia Tech's community garden space at the end of Maywood Street in Blacksburg.

BLACKSBURG -- Dave Roper's nervousness is understandable.

His vision and name is attached to a new community solar greenhouse that aims to make year-round local food production possible.

"Right now, I'm a little concerned. I wonder if it's going to work properly" said Roper, a retired Virginia Tech physics professor.

"Whenever you do something this big, you're always anxious if it's going to work properly."

He need not fret too much, based on the support and excitement expressed by residents, builders and town officials Thursday during a reception to mark the opening of the greenhouse.

"It's a wonderful sense of accomplishment," said Gail Billingsley, executive director of the YMCA at Virginia Tech.

Officials said the energy-efficient solar greenhouse, at the Hale-YMCA Community Gardens at the end of Maywood Street, is the first of its kind in Virginia.

The greenhouse is named after Roper and his wife, Jeanne, and will be called the Roper Solar Greenhouse.

Roper researched solar greenhouses in 2006 as part of his family's quest to reduce their household greenhouse gas emissions. He also had sketched out a plan for building a solar greenhouse based on designs used in China, Colorado, Canada and in "The Solar Greenhouse Book."

In 2007, Roper went to Billingsley with the idea of building such a greenhouse as a model to encourage residents to boost production of fresh food.

Billingsley said the greenhouse has been a community effort with more than 200 volunteers working on the project. Construction started in July 2008 and the 18-by-32-foot greenhouse was completed a month ago.

The $55,00 project was funded by donations, she said.

Standard greenhouses tend to get too hot when the sun is shining and too cold during winter nights, officials said. The solar greenhouse is a way to store energy collected from the sun in a subterranean sink of soil, rocks and water under the planting beds, according to information about the project.

Billingsley said the greenhouse is already being put to use this winter to test the facility. Some students from Blacksburg New School, community members and some master gardeners have planted items in the greenhouse.

Plots in the greenhouse will be leased out next winter, but lease costs have not been established yet, Billingsley said.

Blacksburg New School representatives said they are excited to be using the greenhouse, which is close to the school at 2500 N. Main St.

"It's an opportunity for the kids to get involved in the early stages of something that will become an integral part of the Blacksburg community," said T.J. Stone, lead teacher at the school.

"The greenhouse sounds incredibly innovative."

Darby Currie, middle school instructor, said seven middle school students are involved in the project. The group is growing lettuce, radishes, spinach, sugar snap peas, beets, tomatoes and squash in the solar greenhouse. Plans are to share the bounty with other students.

Currie said students are excited when they see the progress of the crops.

"They think that the greenhouse is really nice. They seem excited about it," Currie said.

She said the experience is also a way to teach students about organic gardening.

Roper said his hope with the greenhouse is that others may want to build a similar project and that local food production can be enhanced through the efforts.

"I think it's going to be wider than this community," he said.

Roper and Billingsley say they have enjoyed the partnership to make the project a reality.

"We both believe that anything can be accomplished if you think it can," Billingsley said.