Green Solutions

 

The economy. Business travel. Tourism. Utility costs. More than most, Florida’s hospitality industry understands the current combined impact of these forces. To help weather this economic storm and reduce monthly expenses, the Florida Solar Energy Research and Education Foundation through the SunCatcher Program offers restaurants and hotels a buy-down on the cost to install solar technologies. Not only can you lower monthly expenses, but you also become more “green” in the process.

 

Initially, the SunCatcher Program will select several restaurant and hotel demonstration sites across the state for solar installations. These sites will be a pivot point for educational outreach connecting guests and employees to the installation through onsite signage and other consumer materials.

 

In a separate program, SunCatcher extends commercial solar grants to the same audience. Though a lesser contribution, while funding lasts the grants will range from $2,000 to $15,000 to help defray initial installation costs. Funding for the SunCatcher Program comes from the Governor’s Energy Office.

 

Here’s how it will work.

 

Solar water heater grants will be available from $50/1000 BTU with a cap of $15,000. When combined with the state of Florida rebates and the 30% federal commercial investment tax credit (paid in the form of a grant for 2009 and 2010), final out-of-pocket expenditures for a solar water heater should be about 25% of the original installation cost. Flat-rate solar pool heating grants from SunCatcher are set at $2,500 and more nominal grants for solar electric systems will be available for $60/1000 watts. The final buy-down numbers work out similarly for solar electric systems when combining the SunCatcher, state of Florida and Federal commercial investment tax credits.

 

Solar Water Heating: A typical restaurant uses 0.7 to 2.4 gallons of hot water per day for each meal served. Hotels average 10 to 20 gallons per day per room. So, both hotels and restaurants can be excellent candidates for solar water heating systems. Of course, whether solar is the best fit for your establishment depends of the type and cost of the system you are currently using and your individual business energy use patterns.

 

Solar Electric Systems: Both Florida hotels and restaurants also are good targets for solar electric installations. Hotels have an especially close match between solar system electrical output and typical energy use patterns.  In addition, hotels often have plenty of rooftop square footage available square for installation. The types and sizes of any of these solar electric systems can be diverse and range from meeting some, or all, of the daytime electric load or they can be used for standby power, security and parking lot lighting and signage and more. The systems can be scaled to meet the specific need of the facility.

 

Solar Pool Heaters: Today, more solar energy is used for heating swimming pools than for any other single use. Because of the economics of large-scale pool heating, hotels are excellent candidates for solar pool heating technologies. The average commercial solar pool, upwards of three times the size of a residential pool, creates the equivalent of 50,000 or more kilowatt hours each year. Since the sun’s energy is free, this allows the amenity of a heated pool without the cost of operating a heater. 

 

The mission of the SunCatcher Program is to introduce commercial establishments to the variety of solar technologies which make sense for them. We offer partners:

 

·                    Incentives

·                    Up-to-date information about other available incentives

·                    Assistance in locating properly licensed solar contractors

·                    Information about solar technologies

To participate, simply call the SunCatcher Hotline at 1-800-59-SOLAR or email your inquiry to solarinfo@flaseref.org.

 

Linda Tozer is the Director of Marketing and Education for the Florida Solar Energy Research & Education Foundation.