In addition to residential solar installations, HPM Solar is proud to consult and partner with various commercial and nonprofit entities to provide high quality, tier one, solar panel installation solutions. Past customers include motels, small office buildings, and retirement centers. In 2018 HPM Solar installed a 650kW solar installation on the Pilgrim Place Senior Living campus in Claremont, California.
Pilgrim Place Installation:
Summary of the project: Multiple buildings and carports, detached parking shade structure, 295Watt SolarWorld Solar Panels, SolarEdge Inverters, Unirac ballasted racking.
Call us to get a Commercial Solar Quote
Demand Charges:
Demand charges (i.e. the costs for peak energy draw from the utility company) often comprise more than half of the cost on most Commercial electricity bills. Adding additional solar panels over and above actual consumption doesn’t fix the problem.
Most commercial systems require in-depth analysis of utility rate “Interval” data to assess the impact of “Demand Charges” on the overall cost of the utility bill. For example, locally in SCE territory, any customer drawing more than 20kW of electricity at any point in a given month will be assessed a Demand Charge that is typically much more costly than the typical per kWh rate. Further, the demand charge is tallied by finding the highest demand required during ANY 15-minute interval during a full billing cycle.
Therefore, HPM Solar uses sophisticated analytical software to read “interval” usage and determine a custom package of battery storage or demand management so that demand charges are well understood and mitigated as much as possible.
It’s important to reiterate that no matter how many solar panels are installed, demand charges are likely to be a major percentage of the overall bill because peak demand could take place on a cloudy day, at night, or at a time when solar panels are not able to keep usage below the 20kW threshold.
Ask us about demand management solutions for your building. We have effective tools to help you mitigate demand charges.
Commercial tax incentives and depreciation:
HPM Solar always recommends that you confirm with your tax advisor/CPA, but currently commercial buildings stand to benefit tremendously from available tax credits and depreciation. Contact us and we’ll tell you about the current incentives available for solar installation.
NonProfits and Churches:
HPM Solar specializes in serving nonprofits and churches with custom solar panel and storage solutions. Nonprofits and churches tend to spend a large portion of their precious monthly budgets on the purchase of electric energy, but solar can be a great way to fix the problem. The interesting challenge is that Churches and nonprofits do not qualify for the Federal Renewable Energy Tax Credit (ITC) so the solutions need to be more creative in order to “pencil” out financially. Contact us and we’ll develop the perfect solution for your nonprofit or church.
Ask us how your church or nonprofit can maximizes available tax credits with a prepaid lease or PPA.
Tax Credits:
Solar in the United States is a very unique product because it is one of the only things that taxpayers are willing to fund that will pay 1/3 of the overall cost. Essentially, Uncle Sam wants solar deployments to thrive thanks to various benefits such as energy independence, distributed energy, local transmission, renewable clean energy, jobs, and environmental stewardship. Contact us and we’ll let you know the current available tax incentives for solar.