Although World Wide Automotive Service has been a “green” business since it opened its facility off Tapp Road in 2009, owners Don and Melinda Seader are happy to say that solar panels recently added to the roof can now supply all of the business’s electrical needs.
The original plan for the 12,000-square-foot building was to put solar panels on the roof when it was built. But that dream didn’t happen, in large part due to the economic downturn of 2008. Instead, the Seaders decided to have special solar awnings constructed over each of the vehicle bays.
“Over half the cost of the project was in the awnings,” Don Seader said.
Those 20 panels currently provide 200 watts each, which has lowered World Wide Auto’s electricity bills. The new solar panels will provide 10 times more power generation than the awnings. A total of 136 solar panels were fitted onto the white metal roof. Each panel is capable of producing 300 watts of electricity — that means the total system could produce up to 45 kilowatts on a sunny day, enough to power the business.
“On a day like today, we may generate three times as much (electricity) as we need,” Don Seader said, while sitting in the second-story office on a sunny fall day.
He predicts the business will generate enough electricity for itself as well as other businesses or homes during the summer and have a small amount electricity provided by Duke Energy in the winter. “The fall and the spring — it will be a wash,” he said, explaining that even though World Wide Automotive Service may have to purchase electricity during the darker times of the year, it should balance out with what it gave in other times of the year so it basically does not have an electric bill.
The cost of the solar panels has dropped since the business installed the first ones, something that made the recent project a little easier to schedule. The 20 panels for the awnings cost $35,000; the new panels for the roof cost $75,000 even though there are many more panels.