Clarke, a distributor of Asko, Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances and having its show room facilities in South Norwalk, CT and Milford, MA, is planning to achieve Net Zero electrical efficiency at its Milford, MA, located headquarters before the end of 2011 by installing solar power.
Clarke's 106,500-square-foot Milford, Massachusetts complex
The 106,500-square-foot complex houses its offices, culinary center, appliances show room, a warehouse and a television center and meets the requirements of the homeowners and the design community located all over New England.
Beaumont Solar, a New Bedford, MA, located company has been chosen to complete the solar installation. The solar installation, which commenced during April this year utilizes USA made Solyndra solar panels on the massive roof structure of the company located over the hills without tree cover. Before commencing the solar installation Beaumont Solar has removed all the embedded stones over the rooftop and converted the existing ballasted roof of the company into a cool roof surface by installing a new white roof. The white roof will reflect the sunlight over the cylindrical surface of the Solyndra solar panels to improve their efficiency.
The installation will utilize 2,304 numbers of 200-watt solar panels sent from the Solyndra’s production facility in Freemont, CA by rail to Milford, MA. The tubes like solar panels are specially produced to do away with the kite effect and to avoid the snow loading problems over the panels.
On completion of the installation, the power generated from the panels will meet around 94% electricity requirements of the building. Clark is planning to introduce energy efficient methods to cut down its 6% utility power usage to achieve Net Zero electrical energy consumption. The installation of solar panels will allow the company to save over $77,000 every year.