Tax Credits.  30% of a solar system’s costs can be written off dollar for dollar against your federal taxes and 35% against North Carolina state taxes. Solar energy systems are also eligible for a depreciation schedule of just five years under the federal Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS).

Cashflow.  Solar systems start spinning your electrical meter backwards the day it’s switched on with the financial impact evident in your billing statement a mere 30 days later.  Power bills at half or even one quarter their original amount frees up cash for other investments in the business or for a stronger bottom line.

Energy Insurance.  There are no fuel input costs for solar, so the $/kWh price you pay today is the price you pay 25 years from now.  Natural gas prices, coal prices and regulatory costs for nuclear plants are entirely irrelevant when you generate your power on-site.  Think of it this way: If you had bought gasoline futures 25 years ago and your neighbors hadn’t, how much would you have saved compared to them?

If you’re curious to see what you can gain from solar, give me a call or shoot me an email and we’ll see what we can do for you.

Christian Bogue is the Commercial Sales Representative at Southern Energy Management. Read more about him here.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.- January 31, 2014- This past week the Charlotte Business Journal honored the 16 recipients of its Energy Leadership Awards for 2014 at uptown Charlotte’s Mint Museum. Bob and Maria Kingery of Southern Energy Management were recognized as Energy Leaders based on their impact on job growth, influence on building the Carolinas into a national or international player in the energy industry and impact on energy policy on the local, state or national level.

E4 Carolinas president Scott Carlberg (left) and Energy Leadership Award winner Maria Kingery who with her husband Bob Kingery co-founded Southern Energy Management in 2001.

Bob and Maria started Southern Energy Management 13 years ago, where they began laying groundwork for both the home certification and solar markets in North Carolina, markets that did not exist; currently NC is a leader in both. SEM has been named an Energy Star Partner of the Year for the past 7 years in a row and earned B-Corp status, a certification for sustainable businesses, since 2009.

“Most of all, we’re proud of the positive impact we’ve created for the hundreds of people we’ve been able to employed and the many of thousands of individuals our team has served together,” says Maria of their accomplishments.

The Morrisville-based company specializes in solar-energy systems and efficiency efforts for homes and businesses . The firm has worked with over 300 builders in the Carolinas and Virginia, and verified over 17,000 homes to be energy-efficient through the Home Energy Rating System and other green building programs, including their own ecoSelect program, which they designed to meet a critical need for builders just getting started with energy efficient building.

In addition, SEM has installed hundreds of rooftop solar systems for home and business owners across the Carolinas.  Before the sale of their utility-scale PV division in mid-2012, the company pioneered utility-scale solar in the state, installing more than 20MW between 2008 and 2012.

A few years ago Bob and Maria made the decision to leave the large-scale solar business to focus their business in a way that allowed them to work more directly with home and business owners every day. With optimism for the future solar market, Bob and Maria believe that their customers are partners of the utility and their numbers will continue to grow as NC continues to make smart energy choices for the future.

“Our customers want to save money, save emissions and be a part of creating the solutions we need for a clean energy future. There is nothing more rewarding for our team than helping individual home and business owners realize those goals.”

While working with your spouse can be “challenging at times, in the best possible way,” says Maria, the pair truly complements the other, making them both more successful.  They are partners in creating a meaningful life together, following their hearts and being the change they wish to see in the world; a lesson they hope to teach their 12-year-old son.

MEDIA CONTACT: media@southern-energy.com

ABOUT SOUTHERN ENERGY MANAGEMENT

Southern Energy Management is a North Carolina-based sustainable energy company offering energy efficiency, green building and turn-key solar services for homeowners, builders, and business owners across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. A certified B Corp, SEM’s two-part mission is to improve the way people make and use energy and to build a prosperous company that supports people and the planet.Founded in 2001, SEM is now consistently recognized as an industry leader both locally and nationally. It is among a small handful of companies in the U.S. to earn the national 2013 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award for being named Partner of the Year seven consecutive times. For more information, visit www.southern-energy.com.

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Original Story release by Charlotte Business Journal on January 31, 2014 available here.

This year SEM  “adopted” 20 children from the Methodist Home for Children in Raleigh. The home depends on the support of the community to provide gifts for the children currently in their care.  The 20 “angels” that were placed on our holiday tree were handmade with love by Emma Fry, daughter of team member John Fry, and each one listed the gift that the child wanted most for Christmas.  The 20 angels were quickly adopted, so we added 11 extra angels so that more of our team members could participate.

Maria and I  took a few of the angels from the tree hoping to engage our 11-year-old son in the spirit of holiday giving.  Initially our son was not motivated to go shopping for a stranger, but after we explained the children’s situations, he was visibly moved and eager to help.  On our “angel” shopping list were a “big umbrella” and clothes. I was taken aback that what these children wanted most for Christmas were everyday basics that most of us take for granted.  I am not sure if it was the simplicity of these Christmas wishes or the idea of buying the only gifts that these children would receive that touched my son, but he was in tears as we searched for just the right items.  He wanted to know what would happen to these kids throughout the year and what else we could do to help them. 

These were tough questions that really made me think about my own life. As we discussed what else we can do to support children in our community, I realized the gift our family and our team has been given by these 31 “angels.” It is experiences like these that make us all thankful for the blessings and gifts that we have and proves the old adage that “it’s better to give than to receive.”

This Christmas the SEM Family sends a BIG thank you to all who take the time to help the less fortunate during this season of giving and throughout the year.  We truly appreciate all you do and look forward to standing beside you to make our communities a little brighter for years to come.

Bob Kingery is the President and co-founder of Southern Energy Management. Read more about him here.

“For years, the promise of solar was always ‘just around the corner.’  Well, solar has turned the corner and found itself on Main Street USA,” said Vote Solar Executive Director Adam Browning.  “These companies — titans of American business — may have vastly different products, business models, and geographic locations, but they all have something in common: they know a good deal when they see one.”

The companies moving to solar energy is “like a ‘Who’s Who’ of the most successful corporations in America,” said SEIA President and CEO Rhone Resch. “These iconic brands are leading the way.”

Installation of solar systems in America and NC are growing.  The investment in NC has internal rates of return in the 10-15% range and allows business owners to reduce their tax and energy bills.  We field calls every day from business owners interested in solar as an investment.

“For years, the promise of solar was always ‘just around the corner.’  Well, solar has turned the corner and found itself on Main Street USA,” said Vote Solar Executive Director Adam Browning.  “These companies — titans of American business — may have vastly different products, business models, and geographic locations, but they all have something in common: they know a good deal when they see one.”

The companies moving to solar energy is “like a ‘Who’s Who’ of the most successful corporations in America,” said SEIA President and CEO Rhone Resch. “These iconic brands are leading the way.”

Here are a few tips on what’s changed to help your projects earn certification without breaking your budget, ensuring you stay in the green:

Chp 5 Lot Design – More points available, but still a challenging section for most builders! Planning is key, whether you have a flat cleared lot or plants to protect, you can get credits. Did you know even urban lots can earn points for wildlife habitat through landscaping and downward directed exterior lighting? These are just some of the new points many builders are not taking advantage of in this section!

Chp 6 Resource Efficiency – Are you using LP, Georgia Pacific, Huber or Weyerhauser products? Then you are already earning points! Which points you wonder? Well, the new NGBS Green Certified Products database lets you browse by product type and tell you what points that product qualifies for under the Standard. Pretty handy.

Chp 7 Energy -  This section has gotten harder, as the 2009 Energy Code is now the baseline instead of the 2004 IECC. If this sounds like you: radiant barrier, windows U value .32 or better, 14 SEER AC, 9.0 HSPF/92%AFUE Heating, Energy Star ceiling fans and dishwasher, code tight ducts and envelope, then you are on track! Lots of alternative options here so be sure to pay attention to your specs in this section.

Chp 8 Water – New points for good plumbing design! A lot of them! Many builders often skip this first item, but if you know the length and diameter of your plumbing piping, check out the new chart provided in the Scoring Tool and make sure you are not leaving points on the table!

Chp 9 and 10: IAQ and HomeOwner Manual – Not much has changed in these sections, so if you were in the green before keep doing what you’re doing. A few more point opportunities available, so confirm those cabinet specs and get those low VOC points.

Building green sets you apart and tells a compelling story to your clients. See how close you are to achieving this prestigious designation by benchmarking your projects today!

Jamie Hager is the Green Building Program Manager at Southern Energy Management. Read more about her here.

Electric bill of venerated Durham auto repair shop will be reduced by more than half.

DURHAM, N.C. – C and C Automotive, a Durham auto repair shop, has installed a 13.77 Kilowatt solar photovoltaic system that is expected to offset their power by 67 percent. Located at 129 Wolfpack Lane and installed by Southern Energy Management, the system is expected to generate 17,031 Kilowatts of power per year.

“I made the commitment to solar mainly because it makes financial sense. At the same time, I want to retire one day and this system increases the value of my property for either a lease or sell situation,” said Charlie Thompson, owner of C and C Automotive.

C and C Automotive is a full-service preventative maintenance and auto repair center specializing in undercar, heating and cooling, electronic and transmission services since 1955. Charlie, or Crazy Charlie as he is known to his friends, went on to say that his solar installation gives him a chance to, “show my Boy Scout troop what businesses can do to make this world a better place.”

The system was designed and installed by Southern Energy Management in Morrisville and consists of a total of 54 modules each generating 255 Watts.

MEDIA CONTACT: David Dean: ddean@southern-energy.com or 919-836-0330 ext. 124

ABOUT SOUTHERN ENERGY MANAGEMENT

Southern Energy Management is a North Carolina-based sustainable energy company offering energy efficiency, green building and turn-key solar services for homeowners, builders, and business owners across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. A certified B Corp, SEM’s two-part mission is to improve the way people make and use energy and to build a prosperous company that supports people and the planet.Founded in 2001, SEM is now consistently recognized as an industry leader both locally and nationally. It is among a small handful of companies in the U.S. to earn the national 2013 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award for being named Partner of the Year seven consecutive times. For more information, visit www.southern-energy.com.

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David Dean is the Marketing Manager at Southern Energy Management.

One of the crazy ones: Race car driver and “Carbon Free Girl” Leilani Münter inspired us to “think different.”
Leilani center with Jessica Graber, NCSEA Board Chair and Ivan Urlaub, NCSEA Executive Director

At the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association’s recent Making Energy Work conference in Raleigh, clean energy entrepreneurs, investors, utility executives and policy makers all came together to discuss the future of clean energy in NC and beyond.

The theme of this year’s conference was, “Welcome to the Evolution,” which perfectly describes the current state of our nation’s electricity infrastructure.  Everyone can see that change is coming: the real sticking point is how to support the growth of newer, cleaner, more distributed (and therefore more secure) forms of energy without sacrificing the existing utility infrastructure that’s fueled our nation’s prosperity for the past 100 years.

That tension is at the heart of every conversation, and while there was lots of talk about how we need to be “data driven” and “unemotional” in our decision-making, it’s clearly a hot button issue, which is to be expected during a time of rapid change.  (See this report from CNBC for the latest on the debate in Arizona — it’s even hotter than usual out there!)

With NC’s renewable energy investment tax credit set to expire at the end of 2015, there is an understandable sense of urgency among solar business leaders and investors about what policy initiatives need to be put in place to ensure that we will continue to build on the success the solar industry has achieved in our state.   NC has become a national leader in the solar energy industry. We are #3 in the nation for utility scale installations, and #6 overall; clean energy has created more than a billion dollars of economic value in our state, and sustained thousands of jobs during and after the recession.

Legislator of the Year Awards
At the podium is Rep. Tim Moore and behind him is Sen. Tom Apodaca

Thanks to a powerful mix of smart policy and business innovation, our industry has achieved success few of us dared to dream possible just a few short years ago.  As we continue this “evolution,” the important thing is that we continue to work to find lasting solutions that meet our long-term need for clean, reliable, affordable energy.  Recently RWE, one of the largest utilities in Europe, created news that points to one possible direction for utilities:

“We will position ourselves as a project enabler and operator, and [as a] system integrator of renewables.”  (Read the whole article here)

Congratulations to Ben Schneider and our former colleagues at
Powersecure for being honored as 2013 Clean Energy Business of the
Year

This is a massive transformation and a sign of a forward-looking service-based strategy by one of the world’s largest utilities: “Developing an innovative and profitable prosumer business model is a challenge we also need to address successfully, as we see a billion-euro market emerging alongside our traditional value chain.”

With 24 million customers, RWE is a real bell cow for the future of utilities, and we’ll  be watching their progress closely.  We hope that our American utilities and policy makers are watching closely too.

Maria Kingery is the Co-Founder and CEO at Southern Energy Management. Read more about her here.

My name is Dave Anderson and before I was lucky enough to join Southern Energy Management (SEM) I was a solar customer. In June 2012 my wife and I purchased a 5kW solar photovoltaic (PV) system from SEM for our home in the Briar Chapel community in Chapel Hill. I was passionate about solar before we decided to purchase a system, but after experiencing the professionalism of the staff and seeing the performance of our solar PV system, I knew I wanted to work in the industry. My first day with SEM was June 24, 2013.

The perception is that you have to be rich and a tree hugger to own solar. However, I am not rich and am I not a tree hugger. When you think about solar, you don’t think about me. Many would be surprised to learn the profile of a typical solar owner. I have a wife, two kids, a mortgage and the typical worries that come along with life. I’m just an Average Joe.

Someone once asked me, “Why did you decide to install solar on your home?”

My response was, “I wanted to invest in something safe and reliable with a good return on investment; I wanted to save money on my utility bill and I wanted to reduce my carbon footprint. Lastly, I also wanted to show people that your Average Joe can own solar.” This is what we refer to as the triple bottom line; people, planet and profit.

This Challenge will serve as a platform to highlight success stories of fire departments nationwide and provide an outlet to share these accomplishments. Because fire departments are such a close-knit group, peer-to-peer education and networking fostered through the Challenge will serve as a great benefit to the participants.

Specifically, the Challenge goal is to reduce departmental energy use by 10% in the first year and by 20% in the third year. This can be achieved through several low- or no-cost measures, such as efficiency practices, upgrades to existing appliances and fixtures, and through green design implementation in new construction. Behavioral changes have also been highlighted as a major factor in helping departments increase energy efficiency.

Already, the Town of Cary has worked with several local partners including Southern Energy Management, to renovate 6 of 7 existing stations in addition to building the Town’s first high performance building. Intended to be a showcase for both community safety and sustainable building practices, Fire Station 8, which houses both a fire house and a police substation, is scheduled to open this summer. It includes many of the features seen in modern-day high performance buildings: energy efficient lighting, solar PV and solar thermal hot water heating, and water conservation strategies. The Town of Cary hopes the Challenge will create a platform to profile and summarize their efforts and provide a blueprint for other departments looking to follow suit. Recognizing these benefits, several stations around the country have already signed up to participate in the Challenge, including stations in Missouri, Florida, and Delaware.

To get started, fire stations can sign up at chiefsenergychallenge.org. The first 20 departments to sign up will be assigned a volunteer who will enter at least a year’s worth of energy information on the station(s) into a free online tool called Portfolio Manager, and will help walk departments through the process of updating firehouse energy information monthly. This system will ensure easy tracking of energy consumption and savings to enable fire chiefs to demonstrate the value of energy conservation to the operational bottom line.

Contributor(s):
Megan Dillinger, sustainability and communications intern at Springleaf Strategies in Raleigh, NC. Read more about her here.

The 2012 North Carolina Energy Conservation (NCECC) Code is based upon the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) with some NC-specific amendments. At Southern Energy Management, we have been actively monitoring the new code development and we’re in the forefront of working with builders and developers to maximize the efficiency and benefit of compliance with these new code requirements.

The IECC focuses on the construction of the building envelope, building insulation, efficiencies in mechanical systems and efficiencies in power systems. In general, the code is moving toward an emphasis on building insulation and building envelope construction and the issue of air leakage. The code is broken into Residential and Commercial chapters, and the multifamily industry must focus on both. Multifamily buildings of three stories or less (commonly called low‐rise) typically follow the residential provisions, which is the majority of construction type seen in the region.

Multifamily Project Tested by Southern Energy Management

The new code introduces a verification provision that requires low‐rise multifamily buildings to demonstrate that the air sealing and insulation measures comply with the code’s requirements. Verification requires either a visual inspection and certified by the general contractor or registered design professional. An alternative is to have a performance test (i.e. air leakage tested using a blower door) by a qualified professional such as SEM. Given the scale of multifamily projects, however, it is probably safe to assume that most builders will take the visual inspection approach for code compliance.

Another significant change in the 2012 code will require HVAC ducts to be not only sealed but also tested for air tightness. These tests apply when ductwork is run in unconditioned space — places like the unconditioned truss space above the top floor or in the attic of the building. This test, often using a device referred to as “Duct Blaster,” requires all ducts as well as the indoor air handler to be installed. The test involves sealing all the register boots and pressurizing the system to measure leakage. It’s something SEM has a lot of experience with; we have tested thousands of systems in multifamily buildings over the years.

A few tips to share based upon our experience

• Don’t wait until your Certificate of Occupancy (CO) inspection to have your ducts tested. No reason to run the risk of failure at that late date.
• Either the general contractor (or more often the HVAC subcontractor) should have a plan for testing the ducts before the project starts.
• Involve your qualified testing contractor early in the process. Experience will pay big dividends in identifying the areas where leaks are most likely to occur.

SEM can work with you to make sure your multifamily project can meet these new code requirements, first time and all the time without losing precious construction time. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or contact us for more information.

Dan McFarland is the Director of Business Development for Southern Energy Management. Read more about him here.