© ebm-papst

Giga mile­stone

ebm-papst Inc. was a solar power pioneer in the United States six years ago — with great success.


It happened last year: the 1-gigawatt-hour mile­stone was reached. The ebm-papst subsidiary in the United States installed the first photo­voltaic panels on its roof in 2011. “Back then that was some­thing really unusual,” says Scott Beau­chemin, Vice Pres­i­dent Engi­neering at ebm-papst Inc. “Solar power systems weren’t nearly as wide­spread as in Europe, and espe­cially not in our area.” Farm­ington, Connecticut, is not exactly known for having the most hours of sunlight. But it was time for a major reno­va­tion of the company’s premises, and a pioneer project was a perfect fit with its self-image. “Our Green­Tech philos­ophy isn’t just about our prod­ucts, it’s about how we use energy and resources every day.”

“Our Green­Tech philos­ophy isn’t just about our prod­ucts, it’s about how we use energy and resources every day.”

Scott Beau­chemin, Vice Pres­i­dent Engi­neering at ebm-papst Inc.

The orig­inal 50-kilo­watt system wasn’t the end of the story. The next 50 followed in 2012, and another 100 kilo­watts in 2014. “We were very happy with the perfor­mance of the first system,” says Beau­chemin. And when the Obama admin­is­tra­tion granted support for the instal­la­tion of solar power systems, expan­sion became more attrac­tive. One neigh­boring company has mean­while installed solar panels as well.

Now the company feeds about 250 megawatt-hours per year into the power grid. “And there’s still quite a bit of space on our roof … ”

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