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Keeping in line with a commitment to sustainability, there’s a colorful new addition atop our Hirshfield’s Paint Manufacturing facility in Minneapolis. But the pink and blue panels aren’t there for the color, they’re there for the power. Solar power.

Hirshfield’s partnered with iDEAL ENERGIES, a Minneapolis commercial solar developer, to install a 20kW solar energy array utilizing Xcel Energy’s “Solar Rewards” rebate incentive program.

The program provides financial incentives to businesses that utilize solar panels that will help offset its energy consumption with clean, reliable, renewable energy.

 

The energy produced by our solar array provides the following environmental benefits:

• One year of the solar array’s energy production is the equivalent of the offset CO₂ emissions from burning 18,516 lbs of coal.
• It is also the equivalent of the greenhouse gas emissions from driving 41,104 miles in a typical passenger vehicle.
• The carbon sequestered by the solar array’s energy production is the equivalent of 14 acres of U.S. forest.

The system also allows us to watch the energy savings in real time. iDEAL ENERGIES installed an eGuage online that allows us to monitor the energy produced on a chart like this:

The dark green line on the graph indicates kilowatts (kW), or the instantaneous energy production, and the light green shaded area indicates the kilowatt hours (kWh), or total energy produced over the time period.

It has been almost a year since the solar array was installed and this infographic shows system production and environmental benefits during that time frame.

Bees and solar panels. We’re trying.

Since Frank and Elizabeth Hirshfield opened their first store in 1894, it has been our mission to do the best job possible meeting customer needs and solving customer problems. Hirshfield’s. People and products you can trust.