At Mattergy Solar, a start-up business in a former auto garage on New Rochelle”™s Main Street, Richard Schoen has a long view of the thriving renewable energy industry in which his company seems poised to rapidly grow.
The electric vehicles and solar-powered parking stations that he designed in his pioneering past will come in vogue in the near future across the nation, in his view, where entrepreneurship and environmental stewardship merge.
Mattergy Solar, where the 70-year-old Schoen is executive vice president, might soon start that future rolling in Westchester County.        Â
“We”™ve been in this since ”™73,” he said, “and the first oil embargo,” when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries imposed production controls that sent fuel prices soaring in the United States. Schoen, a California architect and professor, became involved in the solar-power movement in building design and construction. The business and new era of renewable energy stalled out as oil prices dropped again.
“We couldn”™t give this stuff away in the ”™80s,” he said in his office at 766 Main St., “and we can”™t get enough of it now.”
That stuff is photovoltaic and thermosolar equipment and technologies to power and heat commercial buildings, industrial plants, institutions, high-rise apartments and mixed-use developments, among other potential clients newly lining up to make clean energy with solar power. Mattergy Solar, a dealer and installer, has access to about eight manufacturers when building turn-key renewable energy systems.
“We like to say there is no one best system or one best technology,” said Schoen, a research professor emeritus in the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design who also works for Mattergy”™s sister company in Healdsburg, Calif., Stellar Energy Solutions.
Having opened in New Rochelle last fall, Mattergy could soon land a contract for a 1.1-megawatt rooftop commercial project in New Jersey. In Florida, it is on a short list of bidders to supply an electrical utility cooperative with photovoltaic power generated at an existing Mattergy customer”™s building. The fledgling company is close too to a deal to integrate solar equipment into the construction of a building at a prestigious East Coast university.
Closer to home, the company installed a solar hot water system on an 11-story affordable housing project in the Bronx. Following that, “We now have leads” for multiple-family residential projects “that go from four-story brownstones to 60-story apartment buildings from here to as far west as Chicago,” Schoen said.
“Most pv (photovoltaic) companies have not been profitable until this last decade,” he said. “The last maybe three years have been an entire sea change both on the technology and the entire environmental issue.”
Sunny times
“This is an enormously exciting time to be in this business. And new generations are discovering the environment in general and enthralled with the idea of photovoltaics in particular.” ”
Solar-system providers such as Mattergy have profited from business”™ rapidly increased focus on “green buildings” that adopt the U.S. Green Building Council”™s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards for design, construction and operation. What began a decade ago as “a small core group” that included Schoen now has most or all Fortune 500 companies marching profitably behind the green LEED banner, with 8,000 LEED-rated buildings “in process,” he said.
“Nothing has diffused in the building industry as fast except CAD (computer-aided design),” he said.
“There”™s an economic rationale behind green buildings as well,” said Schoen, with significant savings for building owners and occupants in energy costs, employee turnover, absenteeism and retraining and significant earnings for realtors in higher rental rates. For businesses, “As the phrase goes, ”˜You can now do well by doing good,”™” he said.
The demand for solar energy systems has been fueled in part too by state rebates or incentive and federal and state tax credits for businesses and residential owners that install solar technologies. A 30 percent federal tax credit for businesses and homeowners ”“ the business credit has no cap while the residential credit tops at $2,000 per system ”“ will expire Dec. 31, although pending legislation in Congress could extend it.
In New York, customers are exempt from the state sales tax on solar energy systems. Property owners are exempt from paying taxes on the increase in property value due to installed solar systems. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority offers cash rebates on photovoltaic systems that range from $4 to $4.50 per watt for residential owners, with a 5,000-watt limit, and from $4 to $5 per watt for non-residential owners, with a 25,000-watt limit.
In New York, “The rebates were good,” Schoen said. “They”™re not as good now as New Jersey or California. They are the best.”
Electric dealership
Mattergy Solar plans to soon branch into another renewable energy venture in New Rochelle: a DaimlerChrysler dealership in the company”™s Global Electric Motorcar, or GEM. “We could literally get the dealership any day,” Schoen said.
The short-distance GEM resembles a golf cart and travels at speeds of about 25 mph. The models range in price from $8,500 for a two-seater to $12,500 for a six-seater. DaimlerChrysler has sold 15,000 to 126,000 models to date, he said.
“Our object is to get rid of the second family car, not to mention the third family car,” he said.
As the energy and global warming crises grow worse, the zero-emission cars could especially be in demand in housing developments, Schoen said. “Building developers are very shortly going to get nailed directly for pollution by transportation to and from the development.”
Eventually the vehicles could be recharged during the day at solar parking sheds of the sort that Schoen designed for a California housing development a quarter-century ago. He predicted that third-party entrepreneurs will start shared-vehicle service companies once the electric cars come into use.
“The shared-vehicle thing is nationwide now” with standard gas-fueled vehicles, he said. “It hasn”™t happened yet at the level of the local NEV (neighborhood electric vehicle.). I would guess if it hasn”™t happened in the next two years, we”™ll do it.”
The neighborhood electric vehicle “is one of those things that got a big start in the ”™80s, and got a big start in the ”™90s, and we”™re betting that it”™s going to start up again. Others may think we”™re a little crazy for doing it, that we ought to stick to our core business. But we tend to try to stay ahead of the competition.”
“To do this kind of thing, it takes an entrepreneurial spirit,” Schoen said.
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