Solar panel art tops Big Island recycling plant

By Erika Engle

Business Services Hawaii announced that it has installed a 63.44-kilowatt photovoltaic system on its new 43,000 square foot facility in Kea’au, on the Big Island. Business Service’s commitment to promoting renewable energy and reducing, reusing and recycling is visible for all to see. It is the first photovoltaic system Marco Mangelsdorf has ever seen that spells out a word. The word is "recycle," and it is atop the roof of Business Services Hawaii, a diversified recycling company in Shipman Business Park in Kea'au on the Big Island. Mangelsdorf is well acquainted with solar panels as president of ProVision Solar, Inc., which did the installation. The 63.44-kilowatt system cost under $600,000 and should produce about $3,000 in energy cost savings each month. He was reluctant to arrange the panels in such a way at first. "I'm one who likes to keep things simple, easy and as straightforward as possible, and this complicated things," he said. "It was an unknown variable to me," he said. Not as a Ph.D., but "in terms of additional cost and labor, not having spelled anything on a roof before with solar modules." However, Shon Pahio, vice president of Business Services Hawaii, was "insistent," Mangelsdorf said, and Pahio signed off on the estimated additional cost. The standard installation would have the panels on one end of the warehouse roof, "but I like things balanced," Pahio said. "We also wanted to promote recycling at the same time." The company decided to install solar because while its mission is to recycle paper, plastic, cardboard, and metals, etc., "it's hard for us to say that we're trying to save the environment (because) some machines we use draw a lot of electricity," he said. "We thought it went hand in hand, the recycling and the solar." The double benefit is the aesthetic value and the promotion of its mission. Obviously visible from the air, the customized panel display also can be seen from Kipimana Street, the main road through the business park. The family business was started by Pahio's parents, Henry and Margaret, in 1985 as primarily a waste-hauling company. It now serves business and government clients - including county waste transfer stations - as a recycling contractor, and provides related services. The Kea'au facility is about a year old. The panels should provide "the large majority" of its power requirement and it can be expanded - by "underlining" the word - to provide 80 kw of power, Mangelsdorf said. Over the course of a year, the photovoltaic system should produce just under the facility's total power needs, said Pahio. After Jan. 1, federal and state tax credits for renewable energy systems will add up to 50 percent of the cost. "The economics for homeowners to go solar in the state of Hawaii have really never been better," Mangelsdorf said. Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Reach her by e-mail at erika@starbulletin.com For more solar and renewable energy news [SolarAccess.com]