Sunny innovation Historic Carnegie Building goes green

Greg Hoffman, owner of the Carnegie Building, 225 W. Austin, Nevada, and a passerby chat as a crane from Rawlings Custom Fabrication working with Brighergy, a Kansas City-based full service solar provider, lifts a pallet of solar panels onto the roof of the historic structure, Wednesday morning. The panels, which will cover the entire roof, won't be visible from the ground after they're installed.

By Lynn A. Wade

Nevada Daily Mail

No one will be able to see it from the ground after it's installed, but the historic Carnegie Building, 225 W. Austin, Nevada, is getting outfitted with a modern, innovative, energy-wise new feature.

Working with Brightergy, a full-service solar energy provider in Kansas City, Carnegie Building owner Greg Hoffman is equipping the building with solar panels that will cover the roof, harness the sun's energy and save an estimated 30 percent in energy costs, according to Hoffman.

"We wanted to lead by example, and show the community it's a viable alternative," he said.

Plus, with a 50-percent rebate offered through Kansas City Power & Light as well as federal tax credits available for alternative energy, "it doesn't make sense not to do it," Hoffman said.

Nevada/Vernon County Chamber of Commerce Director Gina Ensor's excited about it, both in her role as chamber director and as a tenant -- the chamber offices are on the lower level of the Carnegie Building.

Ensor said other local business are making plans to take advantage of solar energy, too.

Tom Taylor, of Taylor Engineering and Energy Consulting, recently hosted a lunch and learn presentation featuring a representative of Brightergy, offering information and helping to connect businesses interested in solar energy with people who could help them achieve related goals, Ensor said.

Information from KCP&L explains that photovoltaic solar systems are panels or strips that collect light and create direct current energy, which is then converted to alternating current for use in a home or business.

Brightergy's Web site, brightergy.com, points out environmental benefits to using solar energy, saying it's "infinite, clean and renewable;" and a typical system, over its lifetime can mean the environmental equivalent of "planting over 3,000 trees, removing 900 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and not driving approximately 1.2 million miles in a car."