Miller’s Modern Garage
“Because I have children.” That’s the response Joe Miller from Miller’s Modern Garage gives to people when they ask him why he installed a solar system on his business. Joe describes his business and the thought process that went into making his business more sustainable, “ I’ve been making my living repairing cars for over thirty years, the last twelve in my own shop, a three bay general auto repair shop with five full and part time employees. At times I feel almost a little guilty about my part in “enabling” the American addiction to personal transportation. I’m a big proponent of mass transit and I repeatedly encourage my customers to walk more and drive less. I also have a policy of checking and correctly inflating the tires on every car that comes in so as to help decrease fuel consumption. In that vein I’ve looked around for ways to reduce my shop’s environmental footprint. I started with simple recycling steps that save money as well as doing a small part to help the environment: recycling cardboard, metal waste, and tires to keep them out of the dumpster - the same dumpster I have to pay to get emptied. Next came antifreeze recycling, and a used oil furnace to heat the shop. Techniques that required an up-front investment in equipment, but paid for themselves in a few years. After that came the harder decisions to spend a little more for the same product just to reduce it’s environmental impact such as barrels of oil instead of plastic bottles (counter-intuitively the larger quantity costs a few cents more per gallon to pay for the return and re-use of the barrels) that keeps the plastic out of the waste stream, and purchasing supplies as locally as possible to reduce the energy used in transportation.”
Joe explains how he ended up investing in a solar system, “In my twelve years here I’ve always looked at the big flat roof of my shop building and thought it seemed to be somehow wasted space. I finally hit upon the idea of installing a few solar panels up there to see what I could gain from all that sunlight beating down. When I spoke with Jamie about my modest plan to put in a few panels he answered with a proposal to use my suggested investment to leverage public and private incentives and all but fill my roof with a solar array that, instead of making a small and almost imperceptible dent in my electric bill, would supply the majority of my electrical needs. That’s electricity NOT generated through the burning of coal or natural gas. And when we’re closed on weekends the solar array is still working to silently provide electricity to my neighbor’s homes to run their furnaces, TV’s, air conditioners, etc. I get a lot of questions about the solar panels on my roof and inevitably when curious people get around to asking “Why did you decide to spend the money to do this?” I have to stop and try to formulate all my reasons like, “Someone has to prime the pipeline to make these products easily available” or, “I’ve decided I’d like to give back some of what the world has given me”, but usually I just tell them “Because I have children.”
The 10.34kW solar electric system produces about 12,500kWh of electricity on average per year. Producing 12,500kWh of electricity annually from coal emits about 25,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. Preventing this much carbon dioxide from being released to the atmosphere is equivalent to adding 1,250 trees to our forests. Over a 30-year span, IPS expects this system will offset 750,000 pounds or 375 tons of carbon dioxide.