Portland’s famed Becky’s Diner now sports 8 flat plate solar hot water collectors to help wash all those dishes.

The Forecaster reports:

When Becky Rand renovated her iconic diner on Commercial Street four years ago, she wanted to add solar heating panels but couldn’t afford to do it.

She made sure the necessary plumbing was installed, though, so if the funds became available, she would be able to add a solar hot-water system in the future.

So when ReVision Energy called Rand and told her about a grant available through Efficiency Maine and federal stimulus funds, plus a tax incentive, she jumped on the opportunity.

“That made it affordable for me,” Rand said.

Rand worked closely with ReVision over the next year and a half, filling out the many necessary forms and documents to make her solar-heated hot-water system a reality.

Finally, last week, the eight panels and a 160-gallon water tank were installed. Rand said that in the height of the summer, when the diner is the busiest and is using the most hot water, the panels should provide all the heat she needs for hot water.

… “For people like me, with grandchildren, you want to think you’re leaving something nice for your grandchildren,” Rand said. “Maine is special – we don’t appreciate what we have here, how beautiful it is. I want that maintained.”

The system, which is tied in to an existing natural gas heating system, will offset roughly 1,131 therms of natural gas each year and produce 248,000 Btus a day in the summertime. Inside the restaurant is a display panel that tracks system production and tank temperature for real-time analysis of system production.

Next time you’re looking for a nice bowl of chowdah, you can rest easy knowing the water washing your dishes at Becky’s is heated by the sun!

Roughly 2/3 of the electricity used in the new Black Dinah Chocolatiers commercial kitchen will come from the sun!

“When you live on an island, it shapes your thinking,” says Steve Shaffer, one of the proprietors of Isle au Haut based Black Dinah Chocolatiers, “You learn that everything you carry in you must carry out. You have the think things through. And this characteristic has shaped everything about our business.”

It was quite a journey for he and his wife Kate from a co-op in California to a rugged island off the coast of Maine, where they now specialize in delectable chocolates made from fair-trade, organic, and local ingredients. While their business started with a great idea operated out of their home kitchen, the popularity of their creative chocolates soon outgrew their home-based set-up and it was time for the business to expand.

“We were eager to grow though we were also concerned about the long-term costs of running the new facility,” says Steve, “Our business’ single biggest liability was energy costs. On the island, electricity costs roughly twice what it does on the mainland, so offsetting our use with solar electricity made a lot of sense. Likewise, solar hot water would help keep our propane use under control.”

ReVision Energy helped Steve and Kate navigate the various incentives and rebates available for businesses as they designed their new commercial kitchen, including work on an ARRA grant that helped make the project more feasible. The new facility featured all new appliances – commercial dishwater, chest freezers, and convection oven – which, while as efficient as they get, still require lots of energy to work. We designed a 3.29 kw grid-tied solar electric system to provide about 2/3 of their electricity, and a 60-tube solar hot water collector array to preheat an on-demand propane water heater.

A Little Bit of Independence

“Our goal was not to get to net-zero, but to keep our energy bills around the same as when we were running the business out of our home,” Steve says. “So far, we seem to be on track. The solar electric production has exceeded our expectations and we’ve hardly needed to run the propane water heater.”

The solar energy systems give Steve confidence that his business is protected from rising costs of energy. It also plays right into the mission of their organization.

“When you spend so much time with food you develop a relationship with it. We love knowing the Peruvian co-op where we get our chocolate. We also love using local cream, herbs, flowers, fruits, and spices in our chocolates. So it only makes sense that we’d use local energy, too.”

About 70% of Black Dinah’s business is web-based, and you can shop their delights at www.blackdinahchocolatiers.com. Also stay tuned to their Facebook page which features news from their summertime cafe, events, photos, and more.

And… we couldn’t help it – below is a photo of their delicious local Farm Market chocolate collection (all with ingredients grown on an Hancock or Knox County farm):

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The new solar hot water system for Sunset Hill House will pay for itself in under 4 years!

For over 100 years breathtaking views and refreshing mountain air have attracted travelers to Sunset Hill House, nestled in the heart of Franconia Notch and the White Mountains. Over the decades it has seen both travel and travelers change – from an era of regal vacationing that lasted all season long to the advent of motoring, day-trips, and now eco tourism.

Since buying the inn in 2000, innkeepers Lon and Nancy Henderson have sought to maintain the historic charm and amenities of the inn while making thoughtful improvements. Many of these reflect an environmental conscience – putting a conservation easement on 70 acres of land, switching over to green cleaning products, introducing recycling and now: harnessing sunshine to produce solar hot water.

“Investing in solar was a win-win for us,” says Nancy. “We were able to further our Environmental Champion status within the state of NH and are doing our part to support the natural beauty of this region, all while keeping our costs under control.”

A 30% federal tax credit, 25% NHPUC cash rebate, and considerable fuel savings all helped make the economic case for solar as strong as the environmental case for Sunset Hill House.

The System

Heating water is one of the greatest energy loads of inns, and Sunset Hill House is no exception, with 22 rooms with private baths and a fine dining restaurant. Since the greatest need for hot water corresponds with the height of the summer season, solar hot water was a natural fit.

ReVision designed a system consisting of fifteen American-made flat plate solar hot water collectors which heat a custom-fabricated 650 gallon storage tank. On a bright summer day, the system will produce over 420,000 BTUs of clean solar energy, enough to provide close to 100% of the Inn’s domestic hot water demand for showering, laundry, dishwashing, etc. Backup hot water is provided by a Phoenix direct fired propane hot water heater.

With a predicted fuel savings of $7,360/year, the system is expected to pay for itself within 4 years after Sunset Hill takes advantage of all state and federal incentives. Meanwhile they will be saving over 79,000 lbs of CO2 each year!

“I love this system,” says Nancy, “It’s great to walk in in the morning and see that the tank temperature is 145°… for free! And when the temperature coming off the roof is 198°, I just grin all day..”

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The solar electric system on the fire station in Manchester, Maine will provide more than half the power for the building

The Town of Manchester, Maine, has one of the first solar-powered fire stations in the state! Last month we finished installation of a 9.2kw grid-tied photovoltaic array, which will provide over 11,000 kWh of clean energy annually – or roughly half of the power used in the facility.

The Kennebec Journal reported on the project. Keith Edwards writes:

A new array of 44 solar panels atop the fire station is expected to supply about half the electricity the building needs.

“It’s in, it’s making electricity right now,” [Town Manager E. Patrick] Gilbert said of the system.

The system is connected to the power grid, so when it is producing more power than is needed at the fire station, that excess electricity goes into the grid, and the town will get a credit on its bill from Central Maine Power Co. for that electricity.

“Whatever we don’t use dumps back into the grid,” Gilbert said. “There will be good (electricity-generating) days and bad days.”

… Gilbert said the location is expected to allow the panels to work at about 95 percent of their capacity … He said he hopes to ultimately make the system’s monitoring information available on the town’s website.

The project was supported by a grant from Efficiency Maine made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The 18.3kw solar electric array on Supercuts’ Brewer location is expected to provide 100% of the energy efficient building’s electric loads!

On busy Wilson street in Brewer, perhaps the most striking building is the new Supercuts, which boasts a bold architectural design and a 18.3kw grid-tied solar electric system. According to building owner Carol Epstein, this is all by design.

“I wanted it to be visible, a statement, an advertisement – so everyone could see the panels,” she says in a Bangor Daily News article on the project. “We could have done a flat roof and put panels on a little stand, but we really wanted to show off the panels, so we did this big, pitched roof.”

In addition to making a strong environmental statement, economic conditions were right to make the Supercuts project a reality. With a 30% federal tax grant, accelerated depreciation which amounted to nearly another 30%, and a $2,000 state rebate, the project was reduced to close to a third of its original cost… Add to this a lower than ever cost of installing panels (around $4.5/watt installed for this project), and you have a very powerful case for solar electricity!

David M. Fitzpatrick of the Bangor Daily reported in a special section:

When Epstein Commercial Real Estate entered into talks with Supercuts, Epstein found the company’s vision of energy efficiency a good match for hers, and she and her team took the challenge of creating the new store very seriously. “We looked at their electric bills for three of their typical stores around New England to figure out how much electricity they use,” Epstein said. “We sized the system to that.”

Epstein Commercial Real Estate has been pushing for energy efficiency in several of its properties in the past four years, doing such things as installing energy-efficient lighting inside and outside, increasing insulation, and adding timers and motion sensors. “We’ve really looked at the whole spectrum with heating, lighting, air conditioning, insulation on all our properties,” Epstein said. “I think we’ve put in close to a thousand new lighting fixtures.”

… In addition to the solar panels, the building is very green in its design. It features big windows for plenty of natural light, low-watt fluorescent lighting, supplemental LED lighting, and many other features. As for the solar array, a remote control that looks like an electronic Rolodex allows you to flip through data screens that report the electricity being generated, or what was generated that day, week, month, and so on.

“Our tenant is very excited about it,” Epstein said. “They have a number of SuperCuts all around New England, and … they were designing this building — we were all designing it — to be their showcase in the area for SuperCuts.”

Read the complete Bangor Daily News special section, or another article which headlined the Business section, Here comes the sun: Cost, rebates making solar an option.

And of course, be sure to check out Supercuts next time you’re in Brewer. ReVision staffers report that nothing feels quite the same as a blow dry when you know the power is from the sun!

The 7.5KW grid-tied solar electric system on Black Dog Car Wash’s Dover location will save the business over $1,400/yr in electric costs.

How do you stand-out in the crowded world of car washes? For Black Dog Car Wash, it’s been dedication to an exceptional customer experience, state-of-the-art-facilities, and a commitment to the environment.

With water and energy conservation, pollution prevention, and biodegradeable soap options already in place, Black Dog decided that clean solar energy was the way to take their new facility in Dover, NH to the next level.

“Solar is Green Technology that our customers can see,” says Black Dog Car Wash’s owner, Jeremiah Gage, “We have been integrating green technology for years, but our customers rarely see these improvements that lie behind closed doors.”

Black Dog’s growth coincided with a great new rebate from the state of New Hampshire: an incentive payment of $1.00 per watt for solar electric systems. Combined with the 30% federal tax credit (which in 2011 can be taken as a treasury grant), Black Dog found they could save over $15,000 – more than half the cost of the system – as well as being eligible to take additional tax credits in the form of accelerated depreciation.

In addition to saving the car wash an estimated $1,440 per year, the system will offset 12,250 pounds of C02 emissions. The new facility also boasts energy efficiency lighting fixtures, which further reduce the facility’s environmental impact.  “We feel [solar] is what a successful business like Black Dog Car Wash should be doing to help reduce our environmental impact,” Gage continues, “Our goal is to integrate solar at all Black Dog Car Wash locations.”

Interested to see what a solar-powered car wash feels like? Stop by 887 Central Avenue in Dover, New Hampshire – in front of Petco and Bed Bath & Beyond. Or learn more about the car wash voted “Best in New Hampshire” at http://www.blackdogcarwash.com.

More Photos from Our Commercial Solar Photo Gallery:

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Some new additions to our solar project gallery this week:

7.5kw photovoltaic array installed for Black Dog Car Wash in Dover, New Hampshire.

4.6kw grid tied array for emg3, an events marketing company in Falmouth, Maine.

Up in Rockport, Maine, a 27.6kw grid tied solar electric array for Rockport Marine, builders and restoration experts of classic wooden boats.

These businesses have been able to take advantage of the excellent federal rebates available to make solar electricity sound investments in a more secure energy future.

Sun shines down on a set of solar thermal collectors installed on the refurbished Mill at Saco Falls.

Earlier this month music and celebration marked the opening of an old mill building in Biddeford that has been converted into housing units.

The 66 apartments Mill at Saco Falls showcase the greenest type of green building – taking an existing structure and repurposing it, preserving the building material as well as the cultural heritage of the historic structure.

Listen to the MPBN report:

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The Portland Press Herald also reported:

[Nathan Szanton of Maine Workforce Housing LLC] said the project entailed maintaining the mill’s historic character while incorporating significant green features. For example, solar panels on the roof that heat water required strategic placing to keep them out of sight, because the modern look of the panels would detract from the historic appearance of the building

The solar thermal panels on the Mill at Saco Falls are arranged so that the street-view of the historic building is not affected – only the consumption of fossil fuels!

The solar array consist of 25 American-made flat plate solar hot panels that will produce more than 1,000,000 Btu’s of energy on a bright sunny summer day.

The solar heated water is pumped into a massive 1,350 gallon storage tank, which is plumbed into the main domestic water feed.

In the summertime, the sun alone will be enough to heat the tank for showers, dishwashing, etc. In the colder months it will serve as a pre-heat for an existing gas boiler.

The high-volume solar thermal system will provide more than half of the building’s hot water needs – saving over 3476 Therms of natural gas annually!

Standing atop the river that made Saco and Biddeford boom towns in prior centuries, the new project is a strong statement to the marriage of tradition and our renewable energy future.