Boise Co-op goes solar

The Boise Co-op has gone solar. The Co-op roof now bears 134 photovoltaic panels that produce about 6 percent of the electricity the store consumes.

The panels went operational in early September.

The Co-op had considered adding solar panels about six years ago, but cash flow challenges at that time along with preparing for competition from Whole Foods put solar power on the shelf, store manager Saul Seyler said.

“What we were able to do now is probably twice of what we could have done six years ago for the same price,” Seyler said. “Our members through their purchases allowed us to do this. It’s what our clients want to see us invest in the community.”

The $100,000 that the Co-op budgeted for solar allowed for 134 panels, which were installed by Altenergy Inc., a Boise- and Charlottesville, Va.,-based solar energy solution company. Seyler said enough roof space remains to double the number of panels later.

The second Boise Co-op slated for The Village at Meridian will not get solar panels at the outset but may in the future, Seyler said.

The Co-op project was the largest commercial solar installation that Altenergy has done in Idaho, said Matthew Dunay, company vice president and co-founder. The Co-op system produces  34.1 kilowatts of power, which amounts to a $2,000 saving in the electric bill in one year, Dunay said.

Altenergy also installed the solar panels earlier this year at The Flicks.

Dunay and a partner founded Altenergy in Virginia in 2006. Dunay four years ago moved to Boise, where his wife grew up, and opened a branch operation here. Altenergy has other branches in Virginia, Maryland and Georgia.

Dunay has done about 50 projects in Boise with only six on the commercial side.

“We started just in residential but we are now getting heavily into commercial,” Dunay said.