Scintillatingtimes at Swedish Automotive!
As local temperatures have climbed into the high 80’s, we have been experiencing long, sunny days and are excited that a 9.6 kW array of Iteksolar panels is being installed on the roof of our service bays at the time of this writing. These made in Washington panels will feed directly into the city power grid, and Swedish Automotive will get credit from Seattle City Light for our contribution to Seattle’s power needs.
Four years ago, Swedish Automotive’s facility was designed with solar power in mind. Even though every solar installation loses a fraction of it’s potential, Chris Horne from Sunergy Systems took readings from our roof, measured exposure, and calculated the course of the sun at the various times of the year, and determined our roof was perfectly situated and angled, and our system would be as near 100% efficient as any system can be.
Halfway Done with Installation Because the solar equipment and installation is a major capital expense, our array is still modest compared with the capacity of our site. Federal and State incentives make our investment feasible with an estimated 5 years for this array to pay for itself. We hope these incentives are renewed, and should they continue, we look forward to announcing an expansion of our current array and our increased contribution to clean power in Seattle! Go Green!
This morning, King County’s EnviroStars representative Donna Galstad visited Swedish Automotive with great interest in our business and our solar project. She informed us that at this time, Swedish Automotive is the FIRST AND ONLY auto repair facility to BOTH be five-star EnviroStar certified AND have active solar power. We are proud of our commitment to the environment and a green Seattle.