Patagonia has earned a reputation as being friendly to the environment, and has had a longstanding goal of one day being able to generate all of its energy on its own. To that end, Patagonia has already purchased wind power for its facilities across the globe. Since 1996, a solar electric system has provided power for the company’s Reno, NV, distribution center. Company officials have upgraded that system, which started at 5 kilowatts, to the 20-kilowatt system now operating there.

So, when contractors installed a 66.6-kilowatt solar electric system from the Sharp Electronics Corp. last year at Patagonia’s home offices in Ventura, CA, a system that will provide 12% of the power the company needs to operate its corporate center, the move was far from out of character.

But officials with the company and with the Mahwah, NJ-based Sharp hope that the move provides further evidence to corporations that solar power is, especially with today’s higher energy prices, more than just a gimmick for companies eager for some good press. Advocates say that solar power can provide an economic boost to the companies that use it, something, they say, that the Patagonia case illustrates.

Businesses are finding more and more incentives offered for investing in solar energy.

“Companies are starting to take solar power a lot more seriously,” says Mark Cortez, marketing director for Sharp Solar Energy Solutions Group in Huntington Beach, CA. “More states and municipalities are crafting ordinances to encourage businesses to invest in solar energy. They’re creating incentives along with them. Companies are looking at these and understanding that they can save some money. They are taking a serious look at their options.”

Will Patagonia’s forays into solar power encourage other corporations to follow? That’s hard to say. But every success story like Patagonia’s provides additional ammunition for those who point to solar power as one alternative to traditional, and ever more volatile, forms of energy.

The Need For Alternatives
By looking toward solar energy as an alternative to natural gas, officials with Patagonia and Sharp are far from alone. The current presidential administration, in fact, has also promoted the use of solar energy.

The energy bill that President Bush signed into law last summer provided a number of tax provisions that should help promote the use and development of solar energy. The bill provides homeowners who install solar energy systems a tax credit worth 30% of the system’s cost, capped at $2,000. Businesses that buy solar equipment will also receive a 30% credit.

This February, the administration strengthened its commitment to solar power with the proposed “President’s Solar America Initiative.”

The initiative calls for the nation’s largest funding increase for solar energy research, and, most importantly, calls for a solution to the biggest hurdle facing the advancement of solar power: its cost.

It’s far from cheap to install and build a solar system. Though such systems in the long run will result in lower energy bills, it’s not easy for homeowners or businesses to accept the large up-front fees that come with setting up a solar electric system.

The Solar America Initiative, though, calls on researchers to within 10 years find ways to decrease the cost of solar so that it can be competitive with existing sources of electricity. The initiative also calls for manufacturers to deploy an additional 5 to 10 gigawatts of photovoltaic capacity by 2015. That would be enough to power about 2 million homes.

The trick, of course, will be to get congress to pay for this program. The proposed fiscal year 2007 budget for the initiative is $148 million, a 78% budget increase. This figure includes boosts for both types of solar power: $139 million for photovoltaic and $9 million for concentrating solar power.

Officials at Patagonia didn’t need the presidential attention. They’ve been studying solar power for years and have long been convinced of its importance. They also understand that over time solar power can bring significant savings.

“From a business standpoint, there is an increased cost up-front for a system like this,” says Jill Dumain, director of environmental analysis with Patagonia. “But over time, as we watch the energy prices out there, you realize that you are securing your energy costs for a long period of time with a system like this. From a business perspective, then, it makes sense. You can save money. For us, it’s more than that, though. Part of our mission statement is to cause no unnecessary harm. By installing solar, we’ve just lessened our environmental footprint on the world. The question we always face is, How can we shrink that footprint and still remain a profitable company? This is one way.”

Earlier this year, Patagonia and other businesses in California that have made a commitment to solar received another boost. The California Public Utilities Commission in January approved the California Solar Initiative, which calls for the installation of 3,000 megawatts of solar energy systems on California homes, businesses, farms, schools, and public facilities during an 11-year period, boosting once more the profile of this alternative energy.

The initiative creates 11 years of funding for consumer rebates, $2.8 billion in customer incentives for solar projects on existing residential buildings, public buildings, industrial facilities, businesses, and agricultural facilities. The California Energy Commission will provide an additional $400 million worth of incentives for new homes, focusing on collaborations with the builder and developer communities. The incentives are to be gradually reduced over time and phased out by 2016.

Advocates say that the initiative, if its specifics are followed, will provide the power equivalent of six large natural-gas-fired power plants.

A New System At Patagonia
Dumain recognizes that Patagonia is a special case in the business world.

Patagonia's commitment to solar energy did not interfere with its concurrent commitment to leave the natural environment - including trees - intact.

There aren’t many retailers, after all, that have a director of environmental analysis on their payrolls.

“My first inclination is to say, ‘No, of course we’re not unique.’ But in the general business world it is unique to have someone on staff who is focused solely on environmental issues,” Dumain says. “You do have progressive companies out there, companies like Ben & Jerry’s. They have positions that are equivalent to mine. At bigger businesses, though, the reasons to have a position like mine are more compliance ones than they are examples of businesses trying to be progressive.”

Dumain’s job is to make sure that Patagonia impacts its environment as little as possible while still remaining a viable, profitable company.

Dumain approves the recycled paper that Patagonia uses for its catalogues. She studies construction plans to make sure they follow the rules of green building. She helps company officials decide how Patagonia will choose its energy sources, including solar and wind power.

“Every day is a little different,” Dumain says. “It can run the gamut. My job is to help employees incorporate the environmental issues into their daily jobs.”

Relying on alternative energy is nothing new for the clothing retailer. For the last 10 years, Patagonia’s distribution center in Reno has had its own solar electric system, one that has been upgraded over the years so that it is now a 20-kilowatt system. And Patagonia early this year finalized efforts to purchase wind power from a public utility to power one entire building at its Ventura headquarters. Company retail outlets in Denver and Salt Lake City are buying wind to help power their stores.

Patagonia's new solar energy system will be capable of providing 12% of the power the company nees to operate its corporate center, located in Ventura, CA.

Sharp Electronic Corp. designed the solar system to harmonize with Patagonia's campus. Aesthetic fit was considered a critical factor.

The new solar electric system was just one more example of the company’s environmental commitment, Dumain said.

“What we are trying to do is have this well-rounded portfolio,” she says. “We asked ourselves what renewable energies we can support. The wind is another way to support renewable energy that is within our ability.”

With the solar and wind power, two of the five buildings on Patagonia’s campus will be powered by renewable energy sources. These two buildings house 95% of the company’s employees, Dumain said.

The new Sharp system, which Patagonia officials turned on in September of last year, powers the campus’ Crystal Palace building. This building—which features several skylights and atriums—houses the company’s environmental department, creative services employees, and financial arm.

The Sharp system is a unique one. It incorporated 360 185-watt Sharp solar panels erected on three custom-built carports in the company’s parking lot. The structure, which blends in with the rest of the architecture on Patagonia’s campus, produces energy equivalent to that used in about 60 California homes during peak usage periods. The carport, of course, is also functional, shading employee cars from the hot California sun during the workday.

For officials at Sharp, the solar project was far from one of their biggest. The company, after all, produces more than 400 megawatts in solar cells every year, many from its main plant in Memphis. The company has been assembling solar systems since 2003. Its solar manufacturing facility now employs more than 200 workers who assemble 162-, 167-, 170-, 175-, 185-, and 208-watt solar panels for residential and commercial installations.

But while the Patagonia system may not have been Sharp’s most challenging job, company officials still had to design a solar electric system that fit well within the company’s campus. An aesthetic fit was a critical factor for Patagonia.

“From an energy usage perspective, this system was not as dramatic as some of the other projects we’ve done with other clients,” says Cohen. “It’s actually generating a small amount of energy compared to some of the other projects we’ve taken on. With the Patagonia project, though, the interesting thing is that the solar system is part of their entire culture. They did something unique with the solar system design. Usually, you think of putting solar panels on top of a roof. They integrated it in a carport design. It became an architectural element. It’s protecting all these hybrid cars. There are cats and dogs everywhere. It’s a unique environment, a very idyllic place.”

The carport design is no ordinary sheet of metal on four poles. The contractor that Patagonia hired to install and design the system modeled it on the style of Major League Baseball’s new retro parks, so that the carport looks like something that has always been on the campus, not an item added as an afterthought.

The permitting, design, and installation of the carport solar system took about six months, Cohen said.

“This design fits in perfectly with the company’s culture,” he says. “The headquarters sit right on the ocean. This system meshed in with their entire corporate philosophy.”

The permitting, design, and installation of the solar system took about six months to complete.

The Design Difference
Part of the credit for the unique carport solar power system goes to Kevin Hartigan, one of the owners of Ventura-based Hartigan/Foley General Building Contractors.

Hartigan installed the solar system on Patagonia’s campus. At the start of the project, he faced a problem: Officials at Patagonia wanted as few trees as possible cut down. This meant some serious planning on Hartigan’s part.

“You probably wouldn’t find another company whose commitment to solar energy also meant not cutting down trees,” Hartigan says. “They spent a little more money to make sure we put panels where they’d work without interference from the trees. That was actually challenging.”

The solution? Hartigan staggered the company’s parking canopies so that they’d not be affected by the shade thrown by the campus’ trees. This meant that Hartigan’s crew members had to build a third array of canopies rather than remove a row of trees. It would have been far more economical, Hartigan says, to have removed that row of trees.

Patagonia, Though, Wouldn’t Have It
“A lot of companies talk about being dedicated to the environment,” Hartigan says. “Patagonia, though, put its money where its mouth is.”

Hartigan’s firm, much like Patagonia, has crafted its own reputation as being an environmentally friendly company. Hartigan/Foley uses entirely recycled and reclaimed redwood for its residential building projects. The company installs energy efficient windows. Workers recycle or resell as many building materials as possible after a job is done.

The system's groundworld was modelled on the style of Major League Baseball's new retro parks.

The goal is to convince clients that building green, or environmentally friendly, does not necessarily have to be more costly than are more traditional construction projects.

“We want to introduce regular clients to anything they can do for their projects that is beneficial to the environment,” Hartigan says. “We’ve been doing this for 22 years. There is no house that comes up every day that is the ultimate green house. We incorporate green-building techniques into every project we take on.”

Hartigan says he is seeing more companies such as Patagonia embrace solar energy. As companies learn that solar can reduce future bills, Hartigan says, he expects even more businesses to investigate.

“It’s all about education,” Hartigan says. “We are educating clients all the time. The problem is, a lot of the more well-publicized, super-green projects are not on a regular budget or time constraint. They don’t adapt well to the real world. The really good green projects don’t need to cost more. The trendy ones, though, tend to.”

Saving Money
Though solar systems still tend to be expensive, there is good news for companies that invest in them. Many states provide tax breaks and rebates for companies that invest in alternative energy.

Patagonia, for instance, was able to participate in California’s state rebate program. The company received $4.50 back from the state for every watt of solar energy system it installed. This one-time fee lessens the up-front cost of installing the system.

Cortez, from Sharp, says economic benefits such as California’s rebate program are another factor encouraging businesses to invest in alternative energy.

“We have a full slate of commercial projects coming up,” Cortez says. “You have companies that are doing it because it’s part of their public image of being socially aware. Then you also have the regular businesses that are doing it for the numbers, to help better manage their energy usage. We have a backlog of projects as far as we can see.”

Sharp, for example, provided solar panels last year for the largest corporate solar electric system in California. The system, a 904-kilowatt solar array built by Berkeley-based PowerLight Corporation, sits atop FedEx Express’ corporate hub at Oakland International Airport. The system provides about 80% of the peak load demand for the facility.

FedEx’s solar generation system covers 81,000 square feet on the roofs of two buildings. It converts sunlight directly into electricity with its 5,769 photovoltaic modules, which are made up of more than 300,000 solar cells from Sharp. The electricity generated from the system is the equivalent of the power used by more than 900 homes during daytime hours.

FedEx paid for the system because in the long run it will save the company dollars.

Utilities have to reserve enough energy for companies to power them during their highest spikes in demand. If a company has a spike in demand that is five times its normal load, the utilities have to reserve five times the normal bandwidth for that firm. Companies, of course, have to pay higher costs for this higher reserve.

Solar, though, can provide an answer to this dilemma, Cortez says.

“Solar helps you shave off the top of that peak,” he says. “At FedEx, the solar generation shaved off their peak energy usage, and saved them money.”

For Patagonia, the dollar savings—which officials at the company have not yet calculated—are important, but the company’s devotion to one of its core principles, that of being environmentally kind, was a bigger factor in going with solar, Dumain says.

“We have a pretty loyal customer base that does know about our environmental reputation,” Dumain says. “Some are hard-pressed to give specifics, but they generally know that it is important to our company. We are trying to bring an awareness of issues that are not necessarily related to our products.”

DAN RAFTER is a technical writer based in Chesterton, IN.

DE - September/October 2006