The annual Green Energy Ohio Tour began Monday with open houses around the Dayton region, including utility and home solar installations, suburban home energy efficiency retrofits, and a straw bale house.

In all, they’re 174 tour sites in 104 Ohio communities open at various times through Sunday. All the tours are free and mostly self-guided using an Internet site hosted by renewable energy advocate Green Energy Ohio, a nonprofit based in Columbus.

“We invite Ohioans to visit these green energy sites to see how they can begin adopting sustainable energy for their home, business and community,” Green Energy executive director Bill Spratley said.

Ohio is on the cusp of being among the largest solar power producing states. A 50-megawatt farm planned near Zanesville, if approved by the end of the year, would push the state into the top 10, Spratley said. Spratley said 200 businesses are participating in the tour along with 50 installers, 69 manufacturers, 35 local firms and 45 businesses open as tour sites.

The Tour Week is Green Energy’s 10th annual fall tour in conjunction with the American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar Tour.

Stops within a drive from Dayton include: the Bowman & Landes Turkey Farm in New Carlisle, photovoltaic; the Brecha Strawbale residence in Yellow Springs; the buyCastings Building in Miamisburg, photovoltaic; C.J. Brown Dam and Reservoir Visitor Center, Springfield, photovoltaic; Christ United Methodist Church in Middletown, photovoltaic; the DP&L Yankee Solar Array in Washington Twp. and the Ober Residence in Centerville the features both energy efficiency upgrades and a photovoltaic array.

To take a tour, visit the Green Energy Ohio website www.greenenergyohio.org and click on the 2012 Tour Welcome link. Follow it to details on how to create a self-guided tour, or select from one of the guided tours.