Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 11:07:36 AM - by Jeanne Roberts

In Delaware, Middletown-based Keenan’s Auto Body is installing a system of 248 solar panels that will provide about half the shop’s electricity needs and pay for itself in five years, according to Keenan Vice President and COO Michael LeVasseur.

Rated at 65 kilowatts, it is the largest system of its kind in the state, according to LeVasseur, and certainly the largest in the nation devoted exclusively to auto repair, but none of the 248 polycrystalline photovoltaic (PV) panels is mounted on the roof of the 16,000-square-foot building. Instead, 43 of the panels will be placed on the south face of the building, in front, and the remaining 205 will be ground-mounted in a half-acre field behind the building.

Solar electricity production will be monitored by Fat Spaniel, which offers reporting services to the alternative energy industry, and displayed on a screen in the repair facility’s waiting room for customers to view. The data will show not only monthly production, but year-to-date production, allowing customers to realize the actual value delivered by solar energy.

Installed by Wilmington-based Wise Power Systems, the system will – according to Wise President William Rawheiser – conservatively generate about 80,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per year, or enough to power roughly 6.5 homes and prevent about 162,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning generation plants from entering the atmosphere.

The panels will also provide between 90 and 120 renewable energy credits per year, which – at about $200 each – can be sold back to the regional utility. As LeVasseur notes, it’s not hard to see how the system will pay for itself and start generating revenue in just five years. This is especially good news for Keenan’s, as recent news suggests Delaware’s green energy funding is almost tapped out.

In Scottsdale, Arizona, Tony’s Auto Service Center went solar in April. The 8.68-kilowatt solar electric system, installed by Scottsdale-based American Solar Electric, Inc., a solar engineering and contracting firm, is comprised of 42 Sunpower panels roof-mounted in a T-shape, providing immediate branding value as well as solar electricity.

The system, which is estimated to have a payback period of between five and seven years, is covered under a 25-year manufacturer’s warranty and has an expected lifetime of up to 40 years. Funding was provided, in part, by one of Arizona’s largest utilities, the Salt River Project, or SRP, whose EarthWise Solar Energy program is funded by ratepayers and designed to help defray the cost of installing a new solar electric system. SRP also provides an incentive (up to $2.50 per watt) to business customers who install such systems.

And in “green” California, Monterey-based Pacific Motor Service – one of only two service stations certified by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control as a Pollution Prevention Model Shop – is taking green a step further next year by installing a $45,000 solar panel array.

These are not huge steps, but the gradual greening of an American industry whose products are a major cause of pollution is encouraging. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, motor vehicles are responsible for at least half of the smog-forming volatile organic carbon and nitrogen oxide pollutants in the atmosphere.