Investing in Renewable Energy – WAXIE Goes Solar!

By: Briana Smith, Social Media & Product Branding Specialist, WAXIE Sanitary Supply

WAXIE’s foray into renewable energy started at the tail end of 2012, when our then Chief Financial Officer, Sheldon Derezin, proposed that we look into the possibility of going solar. Sheldon has always been passionate about conservation and he brought that interest and ideas into ways that WAXIE could be more proactive in our efforts towards being more sustainable.

Sheldon (along with a few other WAXIE employees) already had solar panels installed at his home, so he was aware of the benefits that solar could bring in regards not only renewable energy itself, but also potential return on investment (ROI) opportunities for the company with cost benefits and incentives from both electric companies & the state.

After pitching his plan, it was decided that WAXIE Santa Ana would be the perfect building to start with, as a “test run”. The building in Santa Ana is the smallest of all of the California WAXIE divisions, so it was the best choice for measuring whether everything would work out. 952 solar panels were installed using a central inverter (DC to AC) by Solar City and the switch was flipped in November 2012.

It was a huge success! Since the install, WAXIE Santa Ana has exceeded an 80% offset in the electricity we have to purchase from the electric company. Overall, WAXIE Santa Ana has consumed approximately 513,553 kilowatts-hour, while generating approximately 534,510 kilowatts-hour of energy. Pretty cool!

Since our test run ended up being a home run, the WAXIE team in charge of this project started looking at other WAXIE facilities to install solar panels and it was decided that the Corporate Headquarters at WAXIE San Diego would be next on the list. We had several bids, including Solar City, that were fairly competitive, but this time it was decided that Palomar Solar would be given the job. We would have equally been happy going with Solar City again, as they are a well established company, but we liked that Palomar Solar is a small, local family-owned company.

Palomar Solar had even been recommended by one of WAXIE’s employees for their excellent customer service. They also had a fantastic performance guarantee that if a certain amount of production wasn’t met, which was agreed to beforehand, than they’d pay us the difference. Hopefully we won’t have to take them up on it!

Palomar Solar Making WAXIE Green – video highlights of the solar panel installation at WAXIE San Diego

The WAXIE San Diego solar panel install went smoothly and was completed 2 ½ weeks ahead of schedule. The work was done safely & efficiently during the 100+ degree heat wave and windy Santa Ana conditions in May 2014, which was at the same time that a rash of wildfires started in North County San Diego. 1,200 solar panels were installed – not bad for Palomar Solar’s largest install to date. We’re hoping to offset at least 80% of our electricity here once the City of San Diego gives us the final okay to switch on the solar panels. As of this writing, we should get the green light from the city any day now.

Another difference from the WAXIE Santa Ana install was using a string inverter system, as opposed to the central inverter. A string inverter system is basically what it sounds like, small strings of inverters that are fed from different groups of solar panel grids, as opposed to a central converter that hooks everything up to one main hub. What we liked about the sting inverter system is that if one string goes down than only the panels on that string goes down while the others are still up and running.

Looking forward, we’re planning on installing solar panel systems at WAXIE Ontario & WAXIE Northern California. At this time we think that we should be able to get approximately 75-80% ROI offset (within a 5 year payback) at those facilities once solar panels have been installed. Once those are completed we’ll possibly look into other facilities we own like WAXIE Mesa, WAXIE Las Vegas and WAXIE Salt Lake City.

We are continuously looking for ways to reduce our energy usage at WAXIE, and we’ve been implementing a LED lighting retrofit plan at several of our facilities. This has already been completed at WAXIE San Diego. We’re also adding a couple more CNG (compressed natural gas) delivery trucks as part of a pilot program to help offset our carbon footprint.

WAXIE is committed to not only helping our customers keep their facilities cleaner, healthier, greener and safer, but by incorporating new innovations and technologies at our own facilities, we’re making sure that our workplace environment meets those goals as well.

For more information about:
Solar City - http://www.solarcity.com/
Palomar Solar - http://www.palomarsolar.com