Regional feed-in-tariff spawns Florida shopping center solar array

A regional feed-in-tariff program is responsible for the new installation of one of the biggest roof-top solar arrays in Florida.

Installers are currently covering the 46,000 square-foot roof of a large Publix shopping center in Gainesville, Fla., with solar photovoltaic panels, according to a press release.

Gainesville Regional Utilities contracted with Inman Solar, BrightPath Energy and The Real Thing Solar Energy to buy power from the installation at regular retail energy cost plus a 20-year fixed feed-in-tariff.

Stafford Properties, which owns the complex, has gained a new tenant at its 100-percent leased facility. It’s signed a 20-year lease on its roof space with the solar energy contractors.

Stephen Edwards, CEO of Stafford Properties, said the project should benefit other tenants by making the building into a more high-profile green development. The rooftop solar installation also comes with improved insulation, which should help reduce tenants’ energy costs.

Edwards said the shopping center will not be buying the power. It will all go back onto the grid with the solar energy contractors benefiting from the tax credits, incentives and feed-in-tariff for renewable energy.

“The idea was not ours,” Edwards said. “Inman approached us.”

Inman told the Stafford Properties that it would fully fund and maintain the system, acting as another tenant.

“This deal doesn’t work without these subsidies,” Edwards said. “The tax credits helped to make it possible. But the subsidy is what makes it economically viable.”

The subsidy he’s talking about is Gainesville Regional Utilities feed-in-tariff program, designed to promote solar and other clean energy projects.

Stafford Properties owns several other shopping centers throughout the state of Florida, Edwards said. This is the first one to get a solar array on the roof.

“It’s difficult when it’s a rental property because there are a lot of mouths to feed,” Edwards said.

Installing solar, if it wasn’t funded and maintained entirely by a third party, would probably result in higher rents for tenants.

“We’d like it if someone would approach us about our other properties,” he said. “But that subsidy makes all the difference.”

Because the Gainesville feed-in-tariff program is just a regional one and not a state-wide initiative, Edwards said he thinks it’s unlikely there will be a lot of interest in other Florida markets to do a commercial solar project like this one.

The solar panels on the roof of the shopping center will produce 350 kilowatts of power.

Pictured: Though not the Gainesville project, this is an example of one of Inman Solar's many commercial installations, courtesy of Inman Solar.