By AUBRIE GEORGE
The Moorestown Sun
In addition to celebrating a 25-year anniversary this year, TTI Environmental — an environmental contractor and consulting firm locating in Moorestown — also recently became the first commercial property in the township to install and use solar panels to run its day-to-day operations.
Bill Dolan, CEO of TTI, said the financial benefits that the project brings with it are just one of the reasons the business decided to go solar.
With a start up capital expense of $300,000 the company expects to receive a full pay back in four-and-a-half years with the help of state rebates, federal tax grants, energy savings and renewable energy certificates.
“There were financial incentives and it just made economic sense,” Dolan said.
In addition, he said, the project made sense for the community and the environment because using a “strong supply of clean energy” takes pressure off the electrical grid.
While the solar panels won’t account for all of the power needed to run the company, which has about 50 employees, it will account for about 85 percent of total in-house electricity. This means there will also be savings by way of utility costs for TTI.
“It helps to lower our operating costs, which helps us to stay in business,” Dolan said.
Dolan said the building was in a good position to build a solar panel as well due to a lack of trees or other obstruction that could potentially block the sun.
“That made it an ideal set up,” he said.
The 50-kilowatt system took about three weeks to install, Dolan said. TTI employed the help of Trinity Solar to install the panels. TTI flipped the switch last week, now allowing their building on North Church Street to run on solar energy.
According to a statement released by the company, the size of TTI’s solar panel system is enough to eliminate approximately 900 tons of carbon dioxide, lessening its impact to global warming, eliminating approximately 9,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide, which is the main cause of acid rain, and eliminating approximately 2,500 pounds of nitrogen oxide which is the major contributor to smog.
