Vestavia office complex installs solar power array

Vestavia Office Park started 2018 with a project to become more energy friendly.

With the help of Vulcan Solar, a supplementary solar power array was installed on the roofs of the two-building Vestavia Office Park complex, located at 200-300 Vestavia Parkway, in early January. 

Vulcan Solar founder and CEO Rob Ozols said the 63-kilowatt system, which includes 221 solar panels, is the first such system on a commercial building in Vestavia Hills and one of only a few installed on multi-tenant office buildings statewide.

“This building uses a lot of power,” Ozols said. “Basically the system is offsetting what they’re consuming from the utilities.”

Ozols said Red Rock Realty Group, which owns and manages Vestavia Office Park, approached Vulcan Solar about the array in 2017. Installing solar energy was appealing not only for sustainability, but also to reduce costs on utility bills.

“It comes down to the bottom line,” Ozols said.

Roughly six months into its first year of operation, Ozols said the Vestavia Office Park solar array is projected to supply about 14 percent of the complex’s annual energy consumption. This is projected to save Red Rock about $12,000 in utility costs in the first year, according to a press release from Vulcan Solar.

“Basically the system is offsetting what they’re consuming from the utilities,” Ozols said. “They’re just consuming less power and paying for less power.”

Tom Carruthers, a principal at Red Rock, said in a release, “We spent a good bit of time analyzing the business case for installing solar panels and ultimately became convinced that it made good sense from a business standpoint.” 

“We were already big believers in sustainable energy systems, but once it became clear that it was a good investment, we quickly made the decision to install solar panels, and we are convinced that this investment will pay off each year in terms of lower electric power bills and then, long term, whenever we sell the property,” Carruthers added.

Some commercial buildings can have solar arrays large enough to supply 100 percent of the building’s power needs and even produce excess power under the right conditions. In those situations, Ozols said the building owners can get credits from utility companies buying back the unused power.

However, Vestavia Office Park did nothave the roof space available for an arraylarge enough to produce that amount of power, Ozols said.

“Overproduction was never an issue. We basically maxed out the usable, most productive roof space,” he said.

Instead, Vestavia Office Park is using a grid-tied system, which Ozols described as “by far the most common solar energy system in the country.” The office park is still connected to the regular utility grid.

When the solar array is producing power, that power will go to the building’s power usage first before it draws from the regular electrical grid. At night or at times when the solar panels can’t produce energy, Vestavia Office Park will use solely traditional power.

Aside from the lowered utility bills, Ozols said the solar panels should “add a lot of value to the building” if it is sold and could help attract tenants interested in sustainability, as there are few options for solar power in commercial office spaces.

“Every tenant can take pride in the fact that some of their power is coming from renewable energy,” Ozols said.

Vestavia Hills City Manager Jeff Downes said all solar energy projects, both residential and commercial, require a city permit prior to installation. The permit cost is $9 per $1,000 of contract cost, as well as a $41 flat issuance fee.

Learn more about Vulcan Solar’s residential and commercial sustainable energy projects at vulcansolarpower.com.