Smokey’s Tavern, Electric Vehicle ChargePoint® Station and Restaurant Delivery Vehicle are Powered by Clean, Renewable Solar Energy

If you’re driving through New Jersey and are hungry for a thin-crust, brick-oven pizza and your electric vehicle needs a charge, Kyocera Solar has the ultimate dining recommendation: Smokey’s Brick Oven Tavern in Vernon, N.J., the “Greenest Eatery in North America,” according to owner Bruce Zaretsky.
Smokey’s is uniquely qualified to make such a claim due to its ability to meet the majority of its electricity needs from the renewable energy of the sun, generated by a 245kW Kyocera solar module array ground-mounted in an adjacent field. Installed in October 2012, the Kyocera PV system and SMA Power inverter provide the electricity needed to power the 10,000-sq.ft. restaurant’s lighting, refrigeration, cooling and gourmet food smokers.

When Zaretsky first installed the 245kW Kyocera PV system, it provided more than 100 percent of the restaurant’s power needs. When he realized that the high-efficiency Kyocera modules generated more power than he anticipated and that he was selling the excess power generated back to the grid, he was inspired to install a twin power point ChargePoint® station and put the excess solar power to another smart green use: charging electric vehicles (EVs), a free perk to EV drivers who eat at the restaurant. He even uses an all-electric Nissan Leaf for restaurant deliveries, which is charged by the Kyocera modules as well. With these significant additional electric loads, the system now supplies about 70 percent of his total electrical use.

“I consider my restaurant to be the greenest restaurant in North America because the majority of our electric needs are solar-powered, providing enough energy for my restaurant, my delivery vehicle and my customers’ electric vehicles,” said Zaretsky. “The Kyocera panels and SMA inverter have operated flawlessly, and the system has exceeded my expectations.”

Zaretsky is so pleased, in fact, that he’s in the process of adding additional modules to the PV system, this time on the building’s roof. “That should get me closer to providing 100% of my energy needs through solar,” he stated.

At smokeystavern.com, a Green Energy Dashboard summarizes solar energy production, consumption, and any excess renewable energy sold back to the grid.

“Kyocera is delighted that our reliable solar power solution has helped Smokey’s to maximize its go-green strategy and further minimize its carbon footprint,” said Steve Hill, president of Kyocera Solar, Inc. “This serves as an excellent example of how solar can help businesses reliably reduce costs and energy consumption. We hope Smokey’s starts a trend in which people will support restaurants that go green and let customers charge EVs for free while enjoying a great meal.”

By Cecilia Aguillon, Director of Marketing & Government Relations, Kyocera Solar, Inc.

California Solar Initiative (CSI), the groundbreaking solar incentive program for consumers that began in 2007, is coming to a successful conclusion. Most of its nearly $2.2 billion budget has been subscribed for photovoltaic (PV) rebates to be paid between 2007 and 2016, and its goal of bringing new solar generation capacity to the state has unquestionably been met. The program has already installed 86% of its 1.94 gigawatt (GW) target for new solar installations, supporting 44,000 solar jobs statewide , and creating a PV market that can thrive with very low or no state rebates. Even the program’s early skeptics now acknowledge that CSI’s 1.94GW target will likely be exceeded.

As of this writing, CSI has received more than 114,000 applications, resulting in 1.66GW of PV installed — with residential programs in all three of California’s major investor-owned utility regions now either in their final phases or completed. And while the program is concluding, sales and leases of solar electric systems continue to grow. We know this because the CSI program publishes the most transparent data available. Its website at www.gosolarcalifornia.org was designed to let everyone see PV market growth in the residential, commercial, government and non-profit segments. This has made it easier for California residents to monitor the program’s impact, obtain information on solar installers and incentive levels, and even calculate their installation costs and projected return on investment.

Transparency, certainty and performance-based incentives have helped CSI attract millions of dollars in investment ― from average home and business owners to local banks and Wall Street. CSI was designed to bring certainty to the market by establishing a 10-step declining incentive program based on performance or kilowatt-hour (kWh) production. Transparency was added in the tools that provide market data, including an online incentive and interconnection application. The CSI program created further certainty in the market through smart design: it was based on the most successful models at the time, namely Japan’s model of upfront rebates for small systems and Germany’s feed-in-tariff model.

To read the entire article, go HERE.

Pacific Islands Solar has found that there are many things one should know prior to choosing a photo-voltaic system. Knowledge about the company’s product, its reliability and its history can tell you a lot about what to expect.The following information about Kyocera Solar Company and its product is provided for your review.

Kyocera has been in the solar industry for more than 37 years. Most companies have been in solar for less than 10 years and are offering product warranties for 25 years. Kyocera is one of the only companies that has modules in place for more than 25 years, and these modules are producing more than 90 percent of their original output. This means they have experienced very little degradation. How can companies with such short track records make claims about the long-term reliability of their product without a reasonable proof of performance?

Kyocera is one of the only solar module manufacturers that made a profit last year for the sale of PV modules. Most other module manufacturers experienced heavy financial losses over the last couple of years due to Chinese manufacturers flooding the market with low-cost products. Lost profits have translated to poor-quality materials and workmanship with less quality control. Kyocera has not followed the ways of its competitors, and has instead introduced higher quality frames to keep its products at the top for product reliability.

To read the entire article, go HERE.