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Case Study |
 Give Something Back
Give Something Back is a business product
company based in Oakland that donates more than half of its
aftertax profits to community based organizations that provide
public health, social, arts, environmental, and education
services. With over three million dollars in donations
over the past 15 years, Give Something Back ranks as
one of Northern California’s largest corporate donors.
Furthermore, they are committed to decreasing their own
the environmental impact. In 2005, they contacted Sun
Light and Power to design a solar electric system for their
office headquarters in Oakland.
 Goals
Sun Light and Power would design and install a structurally
sound and efficient roof mounted photovoltaic (PV) system
that would generate the majority of the electricity necessary
to run Give Something Back’s main office, thus greatly
reducing their carbon emissions in addition to lowering their
electricity bills.
Project
This project
presented significant engineering issues. The
roof supports a good deal of HVAC equipment and features
tall parapets on its perimeter that obstructed
direct sunlight. This complicated the process of installing
the PV modules, as they are typically installed
close to the roof surface.
Sun Light and Power completed the following:
- Designed and engineered a rack system that permitted
them to install the PV modules elevated
above both the HVAC units and shadow lines caused by the
parapets.
- Installed 340 Mitsubishi 170-Watt modules, producing
57.8 kW of peak power
- Installed 9 Sunny Boy 6000 inverters to convert the
DC power generated by the system to usable
AC power.
- Coordinated with the local utility to shut down building
power in order to install line side
interconnection
Results
In April, 2006 Give Something Back began utilizing energy
generated by their new PV system. In
December of 2005 (prior to the installation) they required
13,840 kWh from PG&E to supply power for
their office. From April of 2006 to February of 2007 (following
the installation), they produced the
majority of their own power and only relied on PG&E to
supply 118.5 kWh per month on average, a
reduction of 13,721.5 kWh per month! This of course has reduced
their monthly energy costs by
thousands of dollars and offsets tons of pollutants that
would otherwise result from conventional power
production.
Sun Light and Power Co.
1035 Folger Avenue, Berkeley, CA
www.sunlightandpower.com
(800) 233-4786
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