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You’ve probably heard of high profile investments in solar by large retailers like Ikea, Kohl’s, Costco, and the world’s largest retailer, Walmart. These investments leverage the long terms assets (real estate) of the companies into income producing machines both inside and out. Coupled with various tax credits, accelerated depreciation, rebates, and other incentives, investments in solar make great financial sense for companies who have maximized interior square footage, but haven’t taken advantage of massive swaths of roof space. Walmart alone has installed over 65 megawatts of solar capacity to date. Susan O’Neal Gear of Upstream Insight has an interesting perspective on big-box solar investments. She hypothesizesRead More →

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I just read an article published today on the Harvard Business Review blog that misses the point about businesses, specifically banks and other financial institutions, engaging in sustainable building practices. The article focuses on how companies should be less focused on environmental sustainability and more focused on financial sustainability given the nation’s disfavorable attitude toward banks today. What the article fails to regognize is that sustainable building, when done right, is financially responsible and sustainable! Green building techniques have returns on investment associated with them, and some can be extremely favorable, especially when combined with utility and government incentives. Banks often operate on razor-thin marginsRead More →

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Calling all real estate agents in Southwest Florida! There is an updated form released by the Appraisal Institute® called the Residential Green and Energy Efficient Addendum (Form 820.04). This form provides a way to value solar energy systems on homes that allow the value to be included in residential and commercial real estate appraisals. It has long been known that solar energy system increase real estate values and reduce the time on the market for home sales. Only recently have widely accepted tools been released. Since there are so many solar panel systems in Southwest Florida, it’s important that real estate professionals understand the implicationsRead More →

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NOTE: See UPDATE at the bottom of this post. Southwest Florida is starting to see all Lamar Advertising’s Billboards getting solar panel upgrades. My frustration level with this project is quite high already, first because I believe it was ill-conceived greenwashing, but also because it was poorly implemented. Here is a picture of a billboard in Fort Myers (which thankfully does not host Fafco Solar’s advertisement). Can you spot anything wrong?   Lamar used cookie-cutter prefabricated steel racks on their billboards. It would have been far more efficient to install all of these 12 solar panels on a single rack system, purpose-built for the billboard. But thatRead More →

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Solar water heating systems obviously heat water only during the day when solar radiation is hitting the solar collector. You might realize why it is important for Solar Water Heating Systems to store water, but to what extent should this be considered? In North America, most hot water is consumed in the morning, presumably for personal hygiene. The second most water is consumed in the evening, as people clean the kitchen and prepare for bed. This creates a scenario where hot water is required at times when the most energy is not available. Much of the water stored in a tank may be exhausted inRead More →

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I’m at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Broadway Apartments affordable housing project where we have 40 solar water heating systems installed. This is the largest polymer solar collector water heating project in Florida! Solar water heating will reduce the electric bills for residents of the two-building multi-tenant property. The goal of the project is to provide affordable housing that features low utility bills in a LEED Platinum facility. The solar water heating systems were one part of the LEED criteria that allowed the Broadway Apartments to achieve Platinum status. The Southwest Florida Affordable Housing Choice Foundation reports that previous residents are already asking forRead More →

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I am seeing more interest recently from Southwest Florida Condominiums that want to install solar pool heating systems. The cost of operating electric heat pumps or gas heaters for condo pools is astronomical, especially this time of year. Condo boards are realizing that a large expense contributing to quarterly condo fees is the heating of their pool. In addition, typical Southwest Florida condos are busier this time of year as seasonal residents and renters are occupying a large percentage of condo units and warm pools are in high demand. During cold snaps, electric heat pumps are unable to keep pools at the desired temperature, andRead More →

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Fafco Solar has completed the FGCU Naples Botanical Garden photovoltaic system installation. I am particularly proud of this system and the expert installers that did the heavy lifting. The system includes 164 SolarWorld 245 watt solar photovoltaic modules, 164 Enphase M215 microinverters, a Unirac SolarMount mounting system, and S-5! Clamp attachments. Because of the existing electrical system at the facility, the photovoltaic system is divided into two sub-arrays backfeeding power into two 208V 3-Phase electrical distribution panels. Commercial 3-Phase installations are always interesting from a design standpoint because typically we are dealing with various existing transformers and often generator backup systems. It was truly aRead More →