Auburn solar company booming

An Auburn company with 40 employees is creating major environmental changes and energy savings via solar power installations.Pacific Power Management of Auburn removes more than 17 billion pounds of carbon dioxide annually through current solar installations, according to Sarah Modgling, marketing manager for Pacific Power."This is the equivalent to planting more than 27 million acres of trees," Modgling said. "What we generate could power more than four million houses a year."As some sectors of the economy are sliding, Pacific Power has already installed solar panels at three Auburn car dealerships on Highway 49 and five area gas stations and 25 gas stations in the state. Nella Oil headquarters in Auburn saves electricity from Pacific Power installed solar panels, as does Ceronix. Ceronix manufactures color video touch display monitors and has two buildings on Earhart Avenue, where Pacific Power is located near New Airport Road. Don Whitaker, president of Ceronix, has seen his company experience giant energy savings after installing a 44,000-watt solar system in 2002."We haven't paid an energy bill in six years since we installed it," Whittaker said. "We were paying between $8,000 to $14,000 in electric bills. It was up to $14,000 in the summer."Ceronix has 32 employees and its two buildings with solar power are 63,000 and 11,800 square feet."It was a $3.6 million investment and there was a 50 percent rebate from PG&E," Whitaker said. "I also got a 15 percent federal tax credit, a 10 percent state tax credit and a five-year accelerated depreciation. It advertised and paid for itself in 42 months."Whitaker mentioned that the federal tax credit is now up to 30 percent. Not only is Ceronix saving money on energy, its giving power back to the local grid."We're generating $13,000 extra of energy that we gave back to PG&E," Whitaker said.David Dwelle, a general partner with Nella Oil and also a general partner with Pacific Power Management, was in Hawaii on business and could not give exact figures for Nella Oil energy savings on solar power. However, the estimated savings were considerable."We've saved from $8,000 to $8,500 per month at our headquarters," Dwelle said. "We have two main buildings that are using solar now."Tom Dwelle, general partner of Nella Oil, was in North Carolina on business when reached by cell phone Wednesday, and pointed out that some Flyer gas stations owned by Nella Oil are using solar systems installed by Pacific Power Management. "We have Pacific Power solar in 19 of our Flyer gas stations," Thomas Dwelle said. "At my house on Dry Creek, I have 10,000 watts of six solar panels and another 10,000 watts of tracking panels. My electric bills can be $600 to $700 per month, but my last bill was a negative $68."For this reason and others, employees of Pacific Power find meaning in their work, because they are making a contribution locally and to the environment."We've done about 10 businesses in the Auburn area," said Mark Frederick, Pacific Power's managing general partner. "Around this immediate vicinity there is more solar (installations) per capita than anywhere. The City of Auburn is contemplating putting solar on some of its buildings."In 2008 alone, Pacific Power has experienced phenomenal growth."We grew about 300 percent this year," said Kelly McMahon, director of sales. "Our goal is to triple in size every year."Pacific Power began the installation of the largest winery solar system this month at Constellation Wines in Monterey County. The 1.2 megawatts solar system will cover approximately 170,000 square feet of the main winery warehouse roof and will produce more than 1,700,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, according to Modgling. Upon completion the solar system will provide about 50 percent of the winery's total energy."They (Constellation Wines) have a system that now sets the green standard in the wine industry and gives them a competitive advantage that will only grow as electricity prices increase," Frederick said.When the winery is not processing grapes, the system will export enough electricity onto PG&E's power lines to supply all of the electrical needs of roughly 1,695 households in Gonzales, McMahon said.Pacific Power Management first opened for business in Auburn in 2002 on Palm Avenue and moved to its present location on Earhart Avenue in 2004.