Grants make solar possible for small businesses (Ohio)

[jpak]

http://www.marionstar.com/article/20100509/NEWS01/5090315/-1/newsfront2/Grants-make-solar-possible-for-small-businesses

MARION - It's not easy being green, but it gets easier when the government offers to help.

On the roof of Herb's Body Shop east of the city on Ohio 309, Dovetail Solar and Wind workers are installing 210 solar panels, a job contracted by the business's owner Herb Graham Jr. The project wouldn't have happened without $234,669 in state and federal energy grants, Graham said.

"I first heard about it when I was at a River Valley-Pleasant wrestling match," he said. "I talked to one of my customers. ... Coincidentally, me and my manager Jeff (Bishop) had been talking about solar, so we set up a meeting with this guy. I thought, 'At least my manager can get some information.' We found out a lot of state and federal grants were available, and you can even sell SRECs (solar renewable energy credits). Put all those factors together and it seemed like it'd be easy to go green because you're making some money on it, too."

Alan Frasz, vice president of Dovetail, said solar panel installation projects pay back the business owner in about three years through energy savings and the sale of SRECs, which the business sells to brokers that buy the credits and sell them to utility companies. Electric companies can use the SREC purchases to meet the state's requirement that a certain percentage of the electricity be generated by renewable energy sources.

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[SocialistLez]

1. I wish my city and state would do this. NT

[Kolesar]

2. Because Governor Strickland put a renewable energy portfolio standard into the electricity bill..eom