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tweetLafayette, CO—Colorado C-PACE announced today that Solar Roast Coffee is leveraging CO C-PACE financing to support a 23.7 kW roof-mounted solar PV installation project on their 11,440 sq. ft. retail building at their newest location at 112 West 2nd Street, Pueblo, CO.
Mike Hartkop, the owner of Solar Roast Coffee, said: “We’re excited to work with the PACE program to receive the funding needed to continue our dedication to solar energy. With this program we are able to invest in our building and our environment together while improving our cash flow. Since the building was originally constructed in 1900, it has gone thru many changes. Given the name and nature of our business, we thought that it was time to bring this building into the 21st century. Thanks to Colorado’s C-PACE program, our new solar array will produce the energy needed to roast coffee with no out-of-pocket financing expense. The financing provided by PACE Conservation Solutions will increase the building’s asset value, improve the cash-flow of our business, and gives our company the space we need to continue to grow in an environmentally responsible way.”
Photon Brothers, a Colorado solar power installer with offices in Denver and Pueblo, worked with Solar Roast Coffee to design the system, develop the savings analysis and install the solar array. Photon Brothers’ analysis shows that Solar Roast Coffee can look forward to projected savings of $225,000 over the useful life of the system. Thanks to low-interest, long term C-PACE financing the project is forecast to generate cumulative net cash flow of approximately $124,000.
PACE Conservation Solutions, a Pueblo-based capital provider, funded the project, which totaled $73,400. Keith Willy, owner of PACE Conservation Solutions, said: We were more than excited to have the opportunity to work with Mike and Solar Roast in Pueblo. Solar Roast is THE premier coffee roaster in Southern Colorado, and I’ve been drinking their coffee on bike trips and getaways for years. Aside from being a great business opportunity, it is extremely rewarding to bring PACE capital to small businesses in Pueblo and Southern CO. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with such a great team and be part of the C-PACE mission. We are moving the dial for small businesses as they convert utility expenses into investments in long-lived assets and, we are doing our part for the climate.”
Willy continued, “Usually, C-PACE motivates an owner to install renewable energy measures that they might otherwise postpone. But in this case, ‘solar’ is in the name of the business, so, of course, it made sense to use solar energy. This project highlights the bottom-line benefits of C-PACE financing: low rate, 100% project financing plus energy cost savings that, over the life of the project, exceed the C-PACE payments.
About Colorado C-PACE
A program of the New Energy Improvement District (NEID), administered by Sustainable Real Estate Solutions, Colorado C-PACE facilitates financing for energy and water improvements in new and existing commercial buildings, including new heating/cooling systems, lighting, water pumps, insulation, and renewable energy projects. C-PACE offers long-term financing that covers 100 percent of the project cost and is repaid over a period of up to 25 years. The payments are structured as a regular line item on the property tax bill. When a property is sold, the C-PACE assessment can stay with the property and transfer to the new owner, who enjoys the ongoing utility cost savings associated with the project.
About SRS
Sustainable Real Estate Solutions (SRS) partners with state and local governments to administer commercial property assessed clean energy (C-PACE) programs. Founded in 2010 by experienced commercial real estate and energy efficiency professionals, the company’s proprietary technology-enabled PACEworx™ Platform streamlines the management of the data-intensive C-PACE technical and financial underwriting process. SRS’s Investor Confidence Project-credentialed quality assurance methodology has facilitated more than $255 million in C-PACE financing nationwide. SRS empowers C-PACE public-private partnerships across the country. The company is based in Trumbull, Connecticut.