Good Earth Gets Greener, Installs New Solar Power System

Fairfax’s Good Earth Natural Foods has increased its solar energy use with the recent installation of 852 solar panels onto the top of a neighboring building.

Store officials leased the 40,000-square-foot Fair-Anselm Plaza rooftop to install the panels, which will power an estimated 35 percent of the store’s energy needs. The project, which was partly funded by a federal grant, is the sixth largest solar power system in the county, according to Good Earth representatives. 

Good Earth, which moved into its new store in February 2012, already was using solar panels on its building to heat the grocery’s hot water system.

The San Rafael-based Cooperative Community Energy managed the new solar project and San Rafael-based Sun First Solar was contracted for the project installation, which began in January.

The rest of the building’s energy will come from Marin Clean Energy’s Deep Green Renewable Energy program, which supplies 100 percent renewable energy to the business. 

“We are very exited around here to be in the situation of ‘doing what’s right’,” Good Earth co-owner Al Baylacq wrote in an e-mail to Patch.

He said many of Good Earth’s sustainable efforts focus on the long-term versus “taking short-term views” such as “what’s good for the bottom line” at the moment.

“This ‘live today’ and ‘screw tomorrow’ side of the business world must change for the sake of the planet’s species (including us humans),” he wrote.

In January, Good Earth officials also installed a Blink Network electric car charging station with space for two electric vehicles in the store’s west parking lot. The station, a Blink DC Fast Charger, has the fastest charging rate currently available, according to Good Earth officials and the Blink website. It can fully charge a Nissan Leaf in less than 30 minutes.  

Baylacq said the system isn’t currently compatible with all electric cars.

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