Solar bells are ringing

On Aug. 23, 2010, The Bell Group’s new 1.1 megawatt (MW) photovoltaic (PV) installation went live. According to Schott Solar PV Inc., which manufactured the panels, it’s the largest single PV installation in New Mexico. The installation covers five acres of Bell’s parking lot at its Albuquerque, N.M. headquarters.

Schott said that the installation will supply 80 percent of all the power needed at the industrial jewelry equipment supplier’s headquarters. The PV array will avoid roughly 1,125 tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions, it added. The Bell Group invested between $5 million and $6 million into the array, according to the New Mexico Business Weekly.

Managing Director Alan Bell told the newspaper “We expect the system to pay for itself within five to seven years—faster, if utility rates go up.”

“We achieved as much as we could through energy conservation,” he said. “To do more meant generating electricity, and in New Mexico, the best way to go is the sun, because we have plenty of it here.”

In a press release, he explained that “as a business, we’re always looking for ways to reduce our costs, and our new solar installation is lowering our electricity bills with clean, reliable energy generated by a local, high quality product.” Bell added that the installation “helps us to meet our responsibilities as a business committed to environmentally friendly practices and the local economy.”

As impressive as the system is, which provides shading for Bell’s employees as they walk into work, it’s as impressive that the project was able to source its manufacturers and installers locally as well. Although Schott is a German company, it manufactured the array’s 5,000 PV modules at its Mesa del Sol plant in Albuquerque. The installation was completed by VE (Valley Energy) Group LLC and designed by local company, Affordable Solar Group, which also supplied additional components for the array, Schott said.

While the array will produce the lion’s share of the company’s power needs going forward, the company will have to use grid-supplied energy from PNM energy, a local utility, for the remainder of its needs.