Lighthouse
Solar™, a premier supplier of renewable energy solutions to
residential, commercial and industrial consumers nationwide, announced a
power purchase agreement (PPA) with a new cutting-edge climbing gym.
This ground-breaking agreement raises clean energy standards through a
financing structure that pays investors while reducing the building
owner’s energy costs.
When the world’s first solar-powered climbing gym, Movement Climbing and
Fitness, opens in Boulder in July, its electricity will be produced by a
100-kilowatt photovoltaic array and its water will be heated with a
90-square-foot evacuated tube solar thermal system. The project was
financed in part by the PPA, in which Lighthouse Solar™ owns the system
and the building owners purchase the electricity it produces. The
building owners benefit from a fixed power cost 10% below the current
grid electrical rate, with savings increasing as electrical rates rise.
Lighthouse Solar™ benefits by taking advantage of local, state and
federal incentives and tax breaks which, combined with the monthly
revenue stream from selling the electricity, provide investors in the
PPA with a solid and predictable return on investment.
Scott Franklin, CEO and President of Lighthouse Solar™ explains, “The
PPA concept is not new but by serving as both owner and installer
Lighthouse Solar™ has streamlined third party ownership of clean energy
systems, maximizing the value for everyone involved by avoiding
distributor and subcontractor markups on both materials and labor.” The
installation utilizes highly efficient and cost-effective photovoltaic
panels and evacuated tube solar
thermal collectors from Lumos™, a division of Lighthouse Solar’s
parent company Clean Energy Solutions.
Tim Harrington, the gym’s general contractor said of the Lighthouse
Solar™ PPA, “It is a state-of-the-art deal. Now I want to do it on my
office. The biggest problem with commercial real estate is the utility
bills - they’re enormous.”
To most effectively utilize the sun’s power, the gym was designed by Jim
Logan Architects, a renowned zero-energy design firm. A smart-lighting
system senses the ambient light and increases or decreases the interior
lighting accordingly. A heat exchanger will utilize outside air to cool
or warm the interior. Using Lightgauge™, Lighthouse Solar’s proprietary web-based
data monitoring system, electrical production versus consumption
will be prominently displayed on a monitor at the entrance of the
building.
Lighthouse Solar™
Scott Franklin, 303-638-4562
scott@lighthousesolar.com