After Tuesday's post about "green" building in self-storage, I received an e-mail from a gentleman who is currently in the due-diligence phase of his first self-storage project. He shared with me that the reduction of operating costs is certainly a motivating factor in the process, but he also said, "doing my part to be a better steward of my share of the earth's resources if also a core value of mine."
He's been investigating solar building products by Uni-Solar (United Solar Ovonic) for his own facility, so I thought I would share some info in the blog. If you visit the company's website, www.uni-solar.com, you can read the success stories of projects that incorporate features such as photovoltaic laminates, which are reported to be easy to install on metal flat-panel roofing as well as resistant to any kind of weather.
In addition to environmental benefits of such products, there are often finanicial incentives. For example, Pioneer Elementary School in Brentwood, Calif., installed 330 Uni-Solar modules as well as 15 SunnyBoy inverters and a web-based performance-monitoring system. In turn, the school district received a hefty rebate from the local gas and electric company. So consider that possibility when you weigh the costs of your green building components.
If anyone else has a green product or experience to share, please post your comments to this blog or send me an e-mail at [email protected]. This is valuable info for developers of any kind of real estate.