[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_blurb _builder_version=”3.0.106″ title=”Medical Facilities Take a Healthy Interest in Solar” url_new_window=”off” use_icon=”off” use_circle=”off” use_circle_border=”off” icon_placement=”top” use_icon_font_size=”off” background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n

Solar energy is a natural fit for healthcare organizations \u2014 and not just because solar reduces air pollution and makes the world a cleaner, healthier place.<\/p>\n

For starters, did you know that healthcare facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes, urgent care clinics and medical practices are the fourth largest commercial building energy consumers in the United States?<\/p>\n

Many common pieces of medical equipment \u2014 such as MRI machines and CT scanners \u2014 are in use constantly, consuming significant amounts of energy. And many of these businesses are open 24\/7, with heating and air conditioning systems contributing to their sky-high utility bills.<\/p>\n

Installing a\u00a0commercial solar system for a healthcare business\u00a0is a smart way to slash high electricity bills and get electricity delivered more cost-effectively.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another way solar can improve the bottom line for healthcare businesses. Many medical facilities are at least partly owned by a physician and\/or a physicians\u2019 group. These owner-operators often have high tax bills, and solar can bring some relief via a host of\u00a0solar tax incentives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat most people don\u2019t realize with commercial solar is that a big driver on the return is tax incentives,\u201d said Kyle Frazier, Director of Sales at the Austin, Texas-based\u00a0Freedom Solar Power, a SunPower commercial dealer. \u201cAlmost half of the investment (in a PV solar system) is recovered by tax incentives of one kind or another\u2026And doctors are one group of people who are always looking for tax breaks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trend: Healthcare Industry Going Solar<\/h2>\n

One of Freedom Solar Power\u2019s recent customers, Strictly Pediatrics Surgery Center in Austin, is an example of why solar is a great fit for healthcare facilities. In 2016, the center\u2019s four-story building was outfitted with 2,500\u00a0SunPower^{\u00ae<\/sup>\u00a0solar panels on the roof and the top floor of the parking garage, creating Central Texas\u2019 largest solar system. This 812.3-kilowatt (kW) system produces enough clean energy to meet nearly 50 percent of the center\u2019s electricity needs.<\/p>\n}

All that solar energy generation \u2014 along with the tax incentives \u2014 will help the project pay for itself in less than seven years. In fact, this system will save Strictly Pediatrics at least $2.6 million in the coming years. (Download the\u00a0Strictly Pediatrics case studyhere.)<\/p>\n

Other healthcare organizations around the country are following suit to save money and achieve energy independence, including:<\/p>\n

\n
• Technicians for Sustainability, in Tucson, Ariz., where the sun shines an average of 350 days a year, installed high-efficiency SunPower solar systems at four different locations of Radiology Ltd in 2016 and 2017. Technicians for Sustainability co-owner Danielle Fidel said radiology practices are the most power-hungry of all medical practices thanks to the technology they rely on for patient care. \u00a0\u201cAnything you can think of that draws a lot of power, they\u2019ve got,\u201d she said. The four solar systems at Radiology Ltd. generate about 1.1 million kilowatt hours of clean energy per year, annually offsetting the release of about 2.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Using state and federal tax incentives, these systems will pay for themselves in three years and save the company nearly $145,000 in electricity costs annually.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  [\/et_pb_blurb][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  [et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_blurb _builder_version=”3.0.106″ title=”Medical Facilities Take a Healthy Interest in Solar” url_new_window=”off” use_icon=”off” use_circle=”off” use_circle_border=”off” icon_placement=”top” use_icon_font_size=”off” background_layout=”light”] Solar energy is a natural fit for healthcare organizations \u2014 and not just because solar reduces air pollution and makes the world a cleaner, healthier place. For starters, did you know that healthcare facilities such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asalambdatech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asalambdatech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asalambdatech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asalambdatech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asalambdatech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/asalambdatech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":480,"href":"https:\/\/asalambdatech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions\/480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asalambdatech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asalambdatech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asalambdatech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asalambdatech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}