East Side Glass
St. Cloud MN. East Side Glass Company announced today that they are now powering their business partially from solar energy produced by an array of solar electric panels on their roof at 305 Franklin Ave NE in St. Cloud. The solar panels cover about 4000 square feet of roof space and have a rated capacity of 39.36 kilowatts.
The solar panels are guaranteed to produce at least 90 percent of rated power for at least 25 years. This is the first commercial establishment in the St Cloud area with such a large array of solar electric panels. Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels use the sun to make electricity.
The power produced can be seen live here: http://egauge8203.egaug.es/
East Side Glass is no stranger to being a leader. With over sixty years of experience, East Side Glass is the area’s most experienced full service glass provider. Since solar panels are primarily made of glass, the Ferkinhoff’s owners of East Side Glass became interested in solar energy many years ago. They watched the development of the solar industry and became a leader in energy efficient glass products. This past year, however, the State of MN and Xcel Energy announced a Made in Minnesota solar purchase incentive that made the pricing very attractive.
Dave Ferkinhoff, President of East Side Glass (ESG), said that ”Everything kind of came together at the right time, the Made in MN solar bonus, the Xcel Energy Solar Rewards and a no-upfront cost financing package made this a very good investment for us. Dave Winkelman of Innovative Power Systems stopped by, told us about the opportunity, but we were skeptical. It sounded too good to be true.”
Innovative Power Systems (IPS) of St, Paul MN supplied the solar products, the financing package and was the installer of the system. David Winkelman of IPS (who grew up in St. Cloud) was familiar with the ESG business and Ferkinhoff’s, looked at their flat roofed building many times and thought it would be a good solar location. “I finally stopped by one day in 2013 and suggested they look into a solar rooftop array. Since most of their business dealt with glass, I thought the solar glass panels would look good on their roof and would save them a bunch of money on their electric bills.”
Ths solar panels are made in Minnesota, by a company called TenK Solar, out of Bloomington. The TenK company is a rapidly growing six year old company that has award-winning products and customers from around the world. The panels have a unique reflector panel on the rear of the solar panels, thus preventing heavy winds from lifting the panels and it also reflects more light onto the solar surface. See more at this website: www.tenksolar.com.
The 39.36 kilowatt array will produce about 50,000 kilowatt hours (kwh) per year, which at the average value of ten cents per kwh, will yield about $5,000 per year or $400 per month, plus there are incentives like tax credits, rebates and special tariffs from various power companies. Minnesota has several incentives for solar:
http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/index.cfm?re=0&ee=0&spv=0&st=0 &srp=1&state=MN.
For more information on East Side Glass, you can go to www.eastsideglass-mn.com.
For more information – info@winkelmansolar.com
