Solar Car Wash Reaps Savings

For Steve Anderson, president of Anderson Ventures Inc., a company that owns six car washes in Florida, the idea of taking his business green always intrigued him.

So when an official from a solar panel company approached him about using a solar energy system to help operate his car wash in Sarasota, Anderson began exploring the idea.

“We figured if there was a way that we could be green with our company it would be a good idea to do that,” Anderson said.

“We were first approached by a solar company in Sarasota...and when we started looking at it, it made fiscal sense with the rebates available.”

Thursday the investment finally started to pay off, as Anderson and his brother, Jay, received a rebate check for $20,180 from Progress Energy officials for taking part in the company’s SunSense solar energy program.

“The SunSense is a voluntary pilot program designed to help our residential and commercial customers with an incentive…for installing the photovoltaic systems,” Joe Pietrzak, Energy Efficient Programs manager for Progress Energy said.

“Being the first business in the area to receive the rebate check for installing the system, we’re here today to applaud Mr. Anderson’s investment in solar technology.”

Progress Energy began offering the SunSense program in March. Through the program, residential and commercial customers who qualify are able to save up to $2.00 per watt with their customer-installed solar photovoltaic (PV) units. There are also federal rebates of up to 30% available on the installation of the solar systems.

"We figure it will take about 4 1/2 years to earn our initial share of the investment back, and from there the rest of it will be gravy," Anderson said.

The company claims commercial customers will receive an average rebate of $48,330 this year, with up to $1 million in incentives available to both the residential and commercial customer classes annually through 2014.

According to Pietrzak, over 100 residential and 20 commercial applicants qualified for the program in 2011, and more are expected to apply when the 2012 application process starts on October 4th.

The Andersons are currently having the PV units installed on their business in Sarasota, and they may eventually have the units on all their car washes.

But for now they are just happy to be the first company in the area to take advantage of the SunSense program, hopefully leading the way in inspiring other homeowners and businesses to go green.

“I hope that it translates to our customers who see us and realize we are doing our part to help the environment, and they would use us before somebody else,” Jay Anderson admits. “Being sensitive to what goes on in the environment, we wanted to do our part.”

“We’re grateful to have the opportunity,” Steve Anderson added. “We didn’t realize we were the first commercial business to get the check until somebody told us. We just hope it clears!”