Partnership expand solar energy use

In Business, May/Jun 2002

In early May, EcoEnergies, Inc. of Sunnyvale, California entered into a strategic distribution agreement with PowerLight Corporation to market the company's solar electric roof tiles for flat and low sloping roofs. "It's an ideal partnership because many of our customers have flat roofs well-suited to PowerLight's solar electric system," said Peter Carrie, president of EcoEnergies.

EcoEnergies is a renewable power systems company that designs and installs photovoltaic and wind systems in the San Francisco Bay area, with over 100 systems installed and about half a megawatt of clean energy capacity in place.

In another example of partnering, Lunardi's Supermarket chain in northern California and Powerlight teamed up with Nextek Power Systems and Princeton Energy Systems to create an integrated on-site solar electric power and lighting system. The system was recently installed at the Lunardi's in Burlingame, California, making it one of the nation's first grocery chains to introduce solar energy as its primary lighting source. A 33kW solar electric system will power the market's fluorescent lighting. The system is comprised of tiles that are electrically interconnected to Nextek power modules, which feed power to the store's newly retrofitted lighting system.