Solar Power for North Bay Homeless Shelter

Located in Petaluma, the Mary Isaak Center is 22,000 sf. The 22 kW system combined with a new A-6 rate schedule recommended by SPG, is reducing electricity costs by about 45 percent for the year by eliminating the most expensive daytime consumption, while producing the maximum credits through Time-of-Use PG&E billing.

"This was a great partnership among the city, designer, builder, project manager -- everyone associated with the facility," said Roger Kirkpatrick, Associate Director of COTS. "Because we did not have sufficient roof space, we could not put in a full-sized system to bring our electric bills to zero. But we were able to identify a system size and design, coupled with a new PG&E rate schedule, that resulted in the best return on investment from this installation."

The total cost of the system was $161,500. After a state rebate of $60,000, the net cost of the system was $ 101,500. The annual energy savings is estimated to be $10,072, resulting in a simple payback of about 10 years.