Gatorade plant to use solar power

[one...two...tree 2,762]

by Ryan Randazzo -The Arizona Republic

Gatorade will tap West Valley sunshine - with the largest rooftop solar array in the state - to power its distribution facility in Tolleson.

The company will install a 500-kilowatt system at the facility that will supply 40 percent of its annual energy needs, enough electricity to power 50 Arizona houses for a year, officials said Tuesday.

Salt River Project will provide $1.2 million as an incentive for the project, although Gatorade officials declined to reveal the system's cost.

SRP removed the previous $500,000 cap on such incentives for business customers this year to attract larger projects to the program, spokeswoman Patty Garcia-Likens said.

The Gatorade project will take more than half of the $2 million annual budget the utility has set aside for incentives, she added.

SPG Solar of Novato, Calif., is scheduled to begin installing nearly 2,500 rooftop panels in September, and they should be active by November. It's the company's first Arizona project, senior account executive Edward Orrett said.

SRP and Arizona Public Service Co., which split electric service across the Phoenix metro area, are encouraging residential and business customers to install solar-power generation to minimize their expenses to build more power plants or buy more electricity for their customers.

APS faces a state requirement to promote renewable energy such as solar power, and SRP has a self-imposed requirement.

The Gatorade manufacturing facility next to the warehouse can pump out 59 million cases of the sports drink a year, according to the company, and it's the largest of nine plants making the drink in the U.S.

"In this kind of weather, we're shipping everywhere," site manager Rais Ahmed said.

PepsiCo, Gatorade's parent company, is developing sustainable energy and water programs at a variety of its manufacturing facilities, including an experiment to take its Casa Grande Frito-Lay snack-chip facility nearly entirely off the public electric, natural-gas and water systems. The company also installed a large solar system at a Fullerton, Calif., facility last month.

"Ultimately, it's a commitment to the future," said Rich Schutzenhofer, vice president for engineering technology and sustainability for PepsiCo in Chicago.

Gatorade brought in Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart to announce the solar project.

Leinart said that seeing Gatorade, a product he uses, use environmentally friendly technology is important.

"Ever since I became a father, the priorities change in your life," he said. "I always try to go green."

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles...lar0709-ON.html

[Niels Bohr 72]

This is nice. We're slowly conserving!

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Good for them.