Solar Energy

Developer's solar system is one of state's largest
By Bob Shallit -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Monday, January 2, 2006

Rumpelstiltskin...

I'm pretty used to salespeople making extravagant
claims, but does he actually refer to his product as
a "solar system"?

Harlow Wilcox...

Good one! But even more, I'd like to know what "lustrous power" is.

Rumpelstiltskin...

I glided over that without registering it. Maybe it was a
typo for "luminous power", but advertising being what it
is, maybe "lustrous power" is actually what was intended.

There's a guy on radio out here, who sounds like a
teenager who's ticked off because he can't play guitar
well enough to become a rockstar. In his ad, he says
about the deal he's offering for whatever it is he's selling,
electric sponges or something - I don't remember, that
accepting the deal is "the biggest no-brainer in the history
of mankind"

It's one of those cold, overcast days we've been having lately.
Developer Kris Pigman is on the roof of a building he owns in West
Sacramento and crowing about the solar energy system he's installing.
Panels stretch along the entire 50,000-square-foot roof. All tilt
south-southwest, to capture maximum sun exposure.

"Even on a day like this," Pigman says, "it will be generating
electricity." And on a warm, summer day, he adds, it will be producing
far more than he needs to heat and cool the building.

Literally, he says, the energy usage meter that determines his PG&E

J.C....

I'll wait until she get's it motorized.

bill "will be spinning in reverse." Overall, the system should generate
about 90 percent of the building's annual needs.
Solar energy systems no longer are a novelty. What's so noteworthy
about this one, which is set to go online in about a month?

For one thing, at 300 kilowatts, Pigman's is one of the largest
nongovernmental solar projects in the state.

For another - and this is the cool part - it brings the building's
energy system in harmony with the work that goes on in the offices and
bays below.

This is the home of the California Fuel Cell Partnership, a place where
auto companies and government agencies are doing some of the top
research in the country to develop hydrogen-fueled vehicles.

GM, Honda, Ford, Toyota and others all have prototype fuel-cell cars
here. It's hoped that the research under way will lead to mass
production of vehicles that run on a clean, renewable energy source.

Now the building's power also will come from a clean and renewable
source - the sun.

Upstairs, downstairs. Green and green. "Perfect alchemy," Pigman says
of the two emerging technologies being used to create lustrous power
sources without damaging the environment.

Installing a system like this isn't cheap. Pigman figures the cost will
be more than $2.6 million. But a state rebate program, tax credits and
depreciation will cover more than half of that cost.

As a result, he expects the system to pay for itself in three to five
years.

At the end of that time, Pigman will have another revenue source - the
payments his tenants make for energy.

"It will be like having another tenant in the building," says Marianne
Walpert, a VP with Pacific Power Management of Auburn, which planned
and installed the system.

And what do the tenants get from all this? A continuous, reliable
source of energy. They'll still be on PG&E's grid should anything go
wrong with the solar power system.

Plus this: "They get to say they're in a green building," Walpert says.