The solar collectors atop L.L. Bean’s flagship store are a visible symbol of their commitment to using sustainable energy whenever possible.

Photo courtesy of L.L. Bean

L.L. Bean, the iconic Maine outdoor apparel and equipment retailer, took one more step towards their corporate goal of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2012 with the installation of a solar hot water system on their flagship store in Freeport, Maine.

The system consists of 180 evacuated tube solar hot water collectors which heat twin 80 gallon Stiebel Eltron solar hot water storage tanks.

The closed loop system contains non toxic antifreeze which pumps from the tanks to the collectors, where it is heated by the sun, and then back to the storage tank where it passes through a heat exchange coil to heat the domestic hot water supply.

From May to September the array will provide nearly 100% of the hot water used for the flagship store’s employee shower, custodial basins, 2 cafes and 29 sinks.  Beans’ existing propane hot water heater serves as a backup.

“This system can heat enough water on sunny days so that we won’t need to fire up the water heaters in the store,” says George Croston, HVAC Senior Supervisor in Facilities and the project manager for the solar panel installation. “On overcast days and on cold days in the winter, the system will still preheat water so that we’ll use less energy to get it up to the right temperature of 120 degrees F.”

Here is a video of ReVision cofounder Fortunat Mueller (who designed the system) explaining how it works:

L.L. Bean: Showing People Solar Works

“We want visitors to see these solar panels and make the positive connection that L.L.Bean is investing in and promoting renewable energy,” says L.L.Bean Senior Public Relations Representative Laurie Brooks. “The more businesses that make these types of changes, the better. It’s our hope that eventually green technology will become mainstream, and prices for solar technology will become more affordable.”

The solar hot water investment is part of larger environmental stewardship efforts by L.L. Bean, which include upgrading lighting systems throughout the company, converting heating systems to natural gas (from oil and propane) and implementing a corporate energy policy.

“In concert with additional energy efficiency projects, [the solar hot water system] will allow us to achieve our EPA Climate Leaders goal of reducing our greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2012,” adds Laurie. Climate Leaders is a voluntary partnership between industry and government that encourages companies to develop long-term strategies that reduce CO2 emissions.

L.L. Bean has also committed to build all new structures according to the US Green Building Council’s LEED standards and has converted their heavy-duty truck fleet to biodiesel fuel.

You can learn more about L.L. Bean’s environmental commitment on their website.

Making Solar Affordable

L.L. Bean expects to use 850 fewer gallons of propane each year with the new system, resulting in a savings of nearly $1,900 in fuel costs in the first year alone, and more than $51,000 in fuel savings over the warrantied 15-year life of the solar heating system. The system should last much longer than that—the solar panels L.L. Bean installed on the roof of their Taylor Building in the 1980s are still producing hot water for that building’s restrooms and employee showers decades later.

“In addition, use of renewable energy, in concert with additional energy efficiency projects, will allow us to achieve our EPA Climate Leaders goal of reducing our greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2012,” adds Laurie. Climate Leaders is a voluntary partnership between industry and government that encourages companies to develop long-term strategies that reduce CO2 emissions.

The project was made possible in part thanks to an Efficiency Maine Commercial Grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The stimulus funding reduced payback projections for L.L.Bean’s new hot water solar system to less than 5 years, with immediate cost savings. 

Next time you visit Freeport, be sure to keep an eye open for the system, which sits to the right of the legendary Bean Boot on the flagship store (on the roof of the camping area).

The Town of Dayton, Maine will now enjoy electric bills of nearly zero year-round thanks to a 15 kilowatt grid-tied solar electric system commissioned the first week of August.

The system, which received funding from Efficiency Maine as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

An article about the project was featured in The Journal Tribune:

The solar panels will produce 21,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, according to an e-mail from Town Treasurer Angela Cushman.

Last year, the town used about 24,600 kilowatt hours of electricity for the municipal building, which includes heating and cooling, at a cost of about $3,600, said Cushman.

The system uses real-time data monitoring so that the town can track performance of the system.

Read more about the system in the full article from the Journal Tribune (PDF Download).

More Photos, from Our Commercial Solar Project Gallery:

ReVision has commissioned our latest educational solar project – a 15.4kw grid-tied solar electric array installed on Winthrop High School, a system that will offset roughly 28,149lbs. of CO2 emissions annually.

The project, which was funded in large part thanks to an Efficiency Maine Block Grant, will save the school more than $3,000 a year for several decades.

Carl Swanson, a retired electrician and Winthrop Green Committee member who helped oversee the project, said this of the work:

[ReVision has] very knowledgeable, clever, capable workers who seem to know their stuff. Even though they are electricians they have had to learn the intricacies of solar power, which I can see is quite a field all its own. I have developed a great admiration for their work, having watched them work for the past 2 weeks. [This is] a first-rate job that will last many years that we can be proud of.

The system was also featured in the Kennebec Journal and on the Winthrop town website.

As with all educational installations, the system has been outfitted with a data monitoring system so that students can learn how the system works and monitor usage historically and in real-time.

From our Schools and Nonprofits Solar Photo Gallery:

See more installations in our Solar Projects Map

The Causeway Club reports fossil-fuels savings of $8,000 in the first year of solar hot water pool heating.

Against the backdrop of gorgeous Acadia National Park is the historic The Causeway Club, which since 1920 has provided a low-key way to relax and recreate. One of its most popular attractions is its saltwater pool, which originally was unheated.

The first upgrade was in 1964, when the brisk Atlantic waters were heated with LP gas, which was further improved in 2008 when ReVision Energy installed a solar hot water system.

“I doubt any of your installations have produced as great a percentage savings,” says Larry Hudgens, General Manager, who reports that in the first year of service the system saved 80% of the prior year’s propane expenditure. The estimated value of that fuel is roughly $8,000. Two years later, Larry reports that the “solar pool heating system is operating as designed with a minimum of commissioning this spring.”

Harvest the Sunshine for Your Pool

Outdoor pool heating is an excellent application for solar hot water, and one that is common in sunny climates like Florida and California. Yet, Maine has ample sunshine to harvest for a pool, extending the duration of swimming season and dramatically reducing the cost of fossil-fuel based water heaters.

Pool heating can take advantage of the very simplest type of solar hot water collector, flat plate plastic collectors made by manufacturers like Heliocol. These collectors use an existing pool pump to direct pool water through a series of valves to the solar collectors. Pool water enters the solar collectors at the bottom and rises to the top through the individual tubes of the collectors, heated by sun the entire time. This warmed water is directed back to the pool, and the cycle continues until the pool is warmed.

More advanced systems can use regular flat plate solar hot water system to provide both domestic hot water and pool heating, which is a helpful dual purpose system (though they are ineligible for federal and state rebates).

Low Profile, High Performance

In addition to being an efficient way to heat a pool, the collectors are low-profile. So much so, that Larry tells us, “It is one of the more innocuous installations I have ever seen. We have a summer full of poolside members and I bet none of them even notice the collectors.”

But they do notice the warm salt water!

More Photos from Our Commercial Solar Photo Gallery:

For more installations, see our Solar Projects Map

On average a domestic solar hot water system will save an oil-burning household 300 gallons of heating oil each year.

Dick and Nancy Crowley were interested in why their current system did not seem to be producing adequate hot water for more than a couple showers per day.

After looking at historical fuel usage, we found that the boiler’s high mass combined with its inefficient tank-less coil meant a summertime efficiency of roughly 8 percent!

Using the Sun to Shut the Boiler Down

ReVision Energy’s experience installing solar hot water systems to replace the tank-less coil configuration has shown that the majority of the oil burned throughout the summer simply goes up the flue, or heats the basement.

In the Crowley’s case this meant that for every gallon of oil used to heat water for showering and dishwashing, roughly 12.5 gallons were lost to boiler standby.

ReVision custom-designed a solar hot water system using an Apricus 40-tube collector for primary domestic water heating, with an electric element for backup on cloudy days.

Let the Sunshine Spill!

On a good sunny day the solar collector harvests enough energy to raise the tank by about 67 degrees. The boiler now sleeps through the summer months, and is only called to heat the house – its intended function. Dick commented after the ReVision crew had completed and commissioned the system- “I’ve never taken a hotter shower than I do now!”

From our Residential Solar Photo Gallery:

For more installations, see our Solar Projects Map

While oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, in Maine levels of sunshine have hit epic proportions. We observe reactions by local residents of the phenomenon, and explore ways this solar spill could be put towards good use!

Photos of some folks who are putting this solar gusher to work:

A little over a month ago, WABI (CBS affiliate in Bangor, Maine) featured a story on The Weatherbee School in Hampden, Maine, where a group of students dubbed the “Green Team” helped win the grant from the Earth Day Network to install a 2.3kw solar electric system on the roof of the school.

Here’s WABI’s coverage of the student green group:

Installation of the system was completed just last week, and the system has enjoyed beautiful sunshine since!

This solar electric array will offset an estimate 2,1000 lbs of C02 emissions each year. The system offers data monitoring so that Weatherbee School’s Green Team can observe how weather affects performance.

Enough crude oil has spilled in the gulf to power all of Maine’s oil-based electrical generation plants

It’s now been a month since the catastrophic drilling accident that lead to the loss of 11 lives and the spewing of at least 5,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico each day (some scientists say that number may be much higher).

We won’t spend time here elaborating on the unprecedented environmental disaster save to say that all conscientious people are taking a hard look at their lifestyle and evaluating how we can get this nasty black stuff out of our lives.

Many of us feel powerless about our reliance on oil – we need basic transportation, we need homes that are comfortable to live in, and power to do our jobs and run our households. How can we reduce the role of oil in our lives?

It’s Going Out the Window

What you may not know is that a shocking amount of oil in New England goes into heating our homes. The US Energy Information Administration says of Maine “About three-quarters of Maine’s households – the highest share in the Nation – use fuel oil for home heating.” That amounts to roughly 17 million barrels of oil used each year (Source:
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/state/state_energy_profiles.cfm?sid=ME).

This leads to a number of problems for us. Not only is it dangerous to use a product that is environmentally destructive, but we expose ourselves to the risk of a fluctuating market.

Maine has no fossil fuel reserves and no refining capacity – the crude oil that is imported into Portland Harbor is then shipped to refineries in Quebec or Ontario, Canada (again, US Energy Information Administration). We are vulnerable not only to ecological ramifications, but also to market forces.

Our dependence on oil emerged when fossil fuel was cheap, and weatherization poorly understood and not a priority. As a result, we see time and again inefficient mechanical systems installed on homes, causing expensive oil heat to pour, literally, out the window.

What About Electricity?

Electricity has an equally scary genesis. Maine does have a mandate for minimum 30% renewable electric sources, provided mostly by hydro. Clean, solar electric, which is proven in Maine, doesn’t yet register on the radar as a major energy source:

Instead, natural gas and oil, both fossil fuels, dominate our electricity consumption. The basic reality is that adoption of renewable energy is still very slow, though the need is more urgent than ever.

How You Can Change Your Relationship with Oil

Walk more, drive less. Eat local. And consider carefully how your home consumes energy.

In many houses, switching to a solar hot water system will conserve 300 gallons of oil a year, a savings of roughly 5,500 lbs of C02 emissions each year. An average home solar electric system (sized at 3kw) will save around 2,778 lbs of C02 emissions each year (mostly from coal-fired power plants).

Contact us to talk more. Or leave your suggestions for an oil-free planet below.