Sustainable Design - Solar
We are strong believers in solar energy and the benefits of a distributed energy system. We have the ability to design roof and ground-mounted arrays as well as utility-scale solar systems.
We focus heavily on sustainable design, and utilizing a solar array to complement a geothermal HVAC system is a perfect match. The geothermal HVAC system greatly reduces the building load, which results in a smaller and more cost-effective solar array to pick up the building load.
Benefits of Solar – a great hedge against inflation
In 2016, we designed the adaptive reuse of the 30,000-square-foot building that our office space resides in. We incorporated geothermal HVAC with a 68 kW solar array on the roof. This has reduced our energy load by 70 – 75%. When the system was installed in 2020, energy was about $0.065/kWh. In 2023, we evaluated the system performance and found that energy had risen to $0.10/kWh, a 54% increase. Our solar array locked us in at $0.027/kWh for 30 years. While our solar array saved us right out of the gate, the real benefit will happen in the future, as it acts as a hedge against inflation.
