Commercial Solar Power
By Chris Tilley
Image Courtesy of Solar Integrated. They take Solar Ovonic laminate and make and install roofing, including Coca Cola mentioned below.
A number of companies are seeing the advantages of putting solar panels on their roofs. They can offset their energy costs and get a decent return on investment. They get great publicity out of being green and they truly are helping the environment.
First up is EI Solutions, recently bought by SunTech. They installed a 1.6 MW solar panel array at the Google campus in Mountain View, CA. It will generate 2.6 million kWh every year saving them $393,000 per year. That gives them a 7.5 year return on investment. That is the system will pay for itself in that time. Their carbon savings will be 1632 tonnes every year.(source) They also have a nive video on the project. One comment was the effect it has on employee morale. I really like the shade structures over the parking lots. I can picture plugging in an electric car directly to the panels. EI Solutions is a carbon neutral company and offset all their emissions.
United Solar Ovonic is using its solar laminates product to install a 12 MW roof top system at a General Motors plant in Spain.(source) Some advantages they list for their laminates, Easy peel and stick application and virtually unbreakable.(source) This will generate around 15 million kWh every year They have also installed 1 MW systems at two GM parts warehouses in California.
A number of other companies are installing solar power.
- Fedex
- Microsoft
- Johnson & Johnson
- Toyota
- Target
- Macy’s
- Tiffany’s
- Coca Cola
I can go on and on on companies that are putting up solar systems. These companies do not make these decisions unless it is in their best interest. Some of the benefits these companies can get: cost savings, head start on a carbon cap, publicity, Electricity cost stability and probably more that I haven’t thought of.
it’s about time some of these companies used renewable. look at fedex for example. how big must their carbon footprint be?
Comment by Total Solar Energy — Sunday, December 7, 2008 @ 8:22 am
Commercial Solar Power this topic more informative and very useful.This technique is new industrial revolution.Thank for great information…..
Comment by Solar Products — Friday, March 13, 2009 @ 3:22 am
I believe that solar panels are an excellent way to provide clean, green and renewable energy to power a wide variety of devices. The power from solar panels is strong, reliable and easy to maintain. And on top of that it is also good for our environment. Therefore i think it is awesome to see that these big companies finally are putting up solar systems. This can really make a difference.
Comment by Roel Solar Panels — Wednesday, March 10, 2010 @ 6:16 pm