Solar rays help keep expenses at bay
Branchburg company also uses panels to protect environment

As seen in

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Staff Writer

BRANCHBURG -- Rich Gorde put it best while on the roof of the Ferreira Construction Co. building. "They say you have to think outside the box," he said. "I think we're kind of standing on top of that box."

Gorde, who was literally standing in the middle of 1,276 solar panels, was talking about "going green" as a way to reduce pollution and beat high energy costs.

"The future is now," he said.

Ferreira, a leading highway, road and bridge construction company, located on Tannery Road in Branchburg, moved next door to its new 41,500-square-foot headquarters in the spring and was brought online by the end of July. Now everything, from its radiant heating system to its computers to hot water and air conditioning, can be powered entirely by solar energy, as long as the sun is shining. The system's peak capacity is around 230 kilowatts.

"Right from the get-go (Ferreira) decided to go green, and be a showcase," said Gorde, who writes the software for the building's solar system. "It's like a laboratory for the future."

"This was a vision of our company president, Nelson Ferreira, to make our new corporate shop/office as energy efficient as possible and to use renewable energy," said Ed Brzezowski, director of engineering for the Ferreira Group, a Division of Ferreira Construction. Brzezowski helped make Ferreira's vision a reality.

Ferreira Construction shared this reality with the public last Saturday, serving as a host building for the nationwide 2006 Green Buildings Open House event, organized by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. It was an opportunity for people to visit homes and businesses and see clean, renewable energy systems at work.

Last month, with sunny blue skies and the occasional passing cloud, was an ideal time to catch the Ferreira building in action.

Inside one of building's offices, a flat-screen TV displays in real time how the solar energy is being used. A needle on the screen shows a percentage of how much the building is operating as a "power plant" versus being a "consumer" of the national power grid.

When the needle is at a 90-degree angle, it means the building is running entirely on its own power. But, as a cloud passed over, the needle dipped slightly into the "consumer" zone, meaning it was drawing from the grid.

"That cloud," said Gorde, as he glared out a window into the sky.

A display on the screen also shows how much the electric bill will be to power the building compared to what it would cost to power a similar-sized structure that does not use solar energy. By early afternoon, and only five days into October, it would have cost Ferreira $628, had they not gone green. Instead, the display showed that the company was actually ahead $120.

Brzezowski said the company anticipates saving $68,000 per year on electricity and gas -- a 65 percent reduction in the typical "large box" buildings found in most industrial parks. The company also estimates an "Annual Avoided Emissions" in CO2 of about 360 tons.

And because Ferreira feeds back into the grid via First Energy/JCP& L, it can sell solar renewable credits, which range in price from $165 to $300.

"Our energy conservation savings and performance of the solar array are exceeding our expectations," Brzezowski said.