Quick, grab that spot under the second solar panel

By Heather Clancy | Oct 24, 2009 |

Tech giant Dell has just flipped the switch on a new 516-panel solar array in the parking lot of its Round Rock, Texas, headquarters building.

The structure can generate about 130,000 kilowatt hours of solar power annually, and it will shade about 50 parking spots in the outdoor lot, which is a nice perk for employees on especially hot Texas days. The solar panels also will provide electricity for two hybrid charging stations that Dell has constructed for its employees.

Here’s a photo of the lot as it appears on a Saturday morning. (I didn’t want to inadvertently expose any employee license plates to the public view without their permission but you can see there are some folks working on this lovely Saturday. Go home, people!)

The project was handled by McBride Electric, Envision Solar and BP Solar. In case you have nothing better to do, you can peek at a real-time view of the lot at this link.

 
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    paultraite@...

    10/28/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Quick, grab that spot under the second solar panel

    Since there is more parking lot, I assume this is a) pilot, or b) a known money loser done for someone's (vendor, installer, Dell's) publicity purposes.
    The missing information in this "news" item (or press release) does it reach payback in the lifespan of the installation, and if so, whats the ROI?

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Heather Clancy

Contributing Editor, Business

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News, where she was a featured speaker about everything from software as a service to IT security to mobile computing.

Heather started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll. When she's not hunting for a great green story, she's singing a cappella or scuba-diving with her husband, Joe.

She writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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Heather Clancy

Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I'm also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I'm covering in my blog.

She writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

Joe McKendrick

Contributing Editor, Business

Joe McKendrick is an author and independent analyst who tracks the impact of information technology on management and markets. Joe is also SOA community manager for ebizQ, and speaks frequently on Enterprise 2.0 and SOA topics at industry events and Webcasts. He also serves as lead analyst and author of Evans Data Corp.'s highly regarded bi-annual SOA/Web Services and Web 2.0 surveys.

Joe writes a regular column for Database Trends & Applications, and has authored numerous research reports in partnership with Unisphere Research for user groups such as SHARE, Oracle Applications Users Group, and International DB2 Users Group.

In a previous life, Joe served as director of the Administrative Management Society (AMS), an international professional association dedicated to advancing knowledge within the IT and business management fields.

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Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick is an independent consultant and editor. Joe has performed project work for the following companies in the IT marketspace: IBM, Systinet/HP, Teradata. He has performed project work for the following organizations in partnership with Unisphere Research (Unisphere Media): IBM, Oracle Corp., International Oracle Users Group, Oracle Applications Users Group, Professional Association for SQL Server, International DB2 Users Group, International Sybase Users Group.

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Business Brains focuses on management issues that revolve around the key question: How do I make my business, family, and coworkers smarter? The blog examines the management issues facing a variety of businesses and debunks the technology you need to know