SunWorks Inc (SUNWQ)

[markp1950]

Nice news Read read!
Printer spending $1.5 million to install one of largest solar arrays downtown
Oct 3, 2016, 12:55pm PDT
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2016/10/03/printer-spending-1-5-million-to-install-one-of.html
Commerce Printing Services is spending $1.5 million to install a solar array that will generate almost as much energy as the massive system powering the Golden 1 Center.


One of the biggest expenses for the printer is electricity to run the presses, and the new array will “offset my power use 85 to 90 percent. That is a big-time savings,” said Gil Caravantes, president of the company at 322 N. 12th St. in downtown Sacramento.

He also plans to gain the benefits of solar energy for his company by buying the system, rather than leasing it. Caravantes said that the system will pay for itself, through energy savings, in about six or seven years.

“I’ve never been able to understand leasing," he said. "You pay for the system over and over. This way we get the equity."

The system will generate about 645 kilowatts. It is nearly as large as the 700-kilowatt system on the roof of the Golden 1 Center. An average residential system, by comparison, generates 5 to 7 kilowatts, according to Rita Edwards, head of commercial sales for Sunworks Inc., the Roseville-based firm installing Commerce's system.

“We are one of the green printers in town. Our customers know that their materials come from renewable resources. It is important to them and their clients,” Caravantes said.

Commerce Printing was previously buying its electricity through the Sacramento Municipal Utility District's green power program that uses wind power. But as a green printer, Caravantes said he chose to look into solar as an alternative to avoid wind power's problem of birds hitting windmills.

The print shop also uses non-toxic vegetable-based inks, a fleet of cars that are hybrids and delivery vans that run on biodiesel. Commerce is also certified as forest-conscious by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Commerce’s photovoltaic system will be on rooftops of multiple buildings, Sunworks' Edwards said.