The sunny side of energy savings

This field of solar panels is providing some of the energy needs for commercial food service equipment manufacturer Cres Cor of Mentor, Ohio.

This might be an odd time to be writing about a company’s commitment to renewable energy in light of a U.S. political climate in which it is in fashion to question the link between the use of fossil fuels and global warming and President Donald Trump wants to revitalize the coal industry, but sometimes you see the light. In this case, it was sunlight.

More specifically, it was the sun’s reflection off 1,320 solar panels, made in Detroit, in a 70,000-square-foot fenced-off field in the back of Cres Cor’s Mentor, Ohio, headquarters. As a participant in The FABRICATOR’s 2017 Technology Summit in October, which included tours of seven Cleveland-area shops, I visited Cres Cor, a maker of commercial warming cabinets, ovens, racks, dollies, and other products for the food service industry.

Steve Mayher, chief financial officer, said the company made the commitment to install the solar field after a product launch aimed to help the food service industry get “off the grid.” The HotCube³ indoor/outdoor hot cabinet runs on standard 120-V electricity, but also runs on propane so that it can be unplugged and used in remote locations, such as a wedding in a park or a large tailgating event in the middle of a college campus. Solar panels can be added to the cabinet design for optimal heating control when no electrical outlets are near.

With the push to embrace a renewable energy source for one of its products, Mayher said company management wanted to change the way it was powering its manufacturing operations. That led to an investigation of solar power and, ultimately, a $1 million investment to make it a reality. The solar panel field went live in July 2016.

Mayher admitted that a federal tax credit in 2016 helped to make the installation decision a bit more palatable, but the long-term results will ultimately be the real prize. Right now the solar panels are able to generate about 40 percent of the company’s overall energy needs. The annual energy savings is roughly equal to the annual cost to finance the project, he said. After 10 years, however, the financing will be complete, and that 40 percent savings will drop directly to the bottom line.

“It’s performed as it was supposed to. Everyone is pleased with how it turned out,” Mayher said.

Cres Cor has a bidirectional power meter that actually runs backward when the company is producing more energy than it is using. This is particularly evident on weekend shifts when not all of the equipment is running and most of the facility is unoccupied. In fact, one of the pieces of equipment running is a Mitsubishi 4-kW laser with automated load/unload capabilities, meaning it can product parts without an operator.

So that leaves some basic questions from fabricators and trade journalists:

• Do you have to clean the panels, such as when snow gets on them? Mayher said that they haven’t had to clear off a single panel yet. Snow has melted off, and there are not a ton of trees around the installation (although city planners initially wanted the company to plant bushes around the installation).
• Are the panels constantly moving to follow the sun’s daily migration in the sky? The panels actually move only a couple times per day, in the morning and the afternoon.
• What happens on cloudy days? The amount of energy collected depends on the density of the clouds. It is greatly diminished on cloudy days compared to sunny days, but the panels still are in the energy-collecting business.

Cres Cor configured the setup of the solar panel field and the energy-transfer system so that it could be more easily moved and placed on the roof of a possible future expansion. The solar panels are a permanent part of Cres Cor’s corporate profile.

This type of move doesn’t ensure Cres Cor’s future success; its new products and attention to customer demands will provide for that. The solar panels, however, are a good example of how this company is looking ahead and committing to an investment that makes future financial sense and makes people feel good at the same time.

It’s also a reminder that its hard, if not impossible, to stop major economic shifts. The International Energy Agency calls solar power the fastest-growing source of global energy and believes it has the chance to overtake all other forms of energy. Obviously, China is playing a large part in this shift, accounting for almost half of all new solar panels installed worldwide. Other countries, such as India, are expected to experience their own solar booms in the coming years.

So if the politics of renewable energy bug you, I understand. But also understand that this market is going to grow with or without the involvement of U.S. companies. It’d be nice for U.S. metal fabricators to share some of the limelight of this robust energy sector.