Rose's Automotive In Sherborn Gets Revved Up For Green Energy

With alternative energy becoming more popular across the country, including Sherborn's own efforts to become a green community, Rose’s Automotive on North Main Street is on the cutting edge.

“We added on to the back of the garage in March,” said Ed Rose, who opened the garage in 1991 and thought that with the addition, it would be a good time to add solar panels.

Rose said he went to a home show last year and at the show he saw a presentation on solar energy in the home and became interested.

“After that I started reading about solar panels,” Rose said.

He consulted Solar Flair, a design and installation service located in Framingham.

He said they came out and looked the property. Rose was told that the south facing angle of the roof would work well. The crew is currently working on installing the panels on to the roof.

"I like alternate energy," said Rose.

He thought that with the incentives by the federal and state government that the idea was a "no brainer."

After the installation is finished, he said the solar panels will be generating 77 percent of the electricity in his garage.

Rose added that since his place is only open 5 and a half days a week, whatever extra energy the panels generate goes back into the grid. 

The energy being put back into the grid is sold back to the energy company at close to triple the rate, said Rose.

He said there was an application process for getting the energy to go back into the grid but his energy company, NStar, welcomed it.

Rose said because of green energy mandates set by the federal government, energy companies are promoting great incentives like that because it is more expensive for them to build solar arrays and wind farms than it is to create these incentives for their customers to do so.