Flannagan's of Dublin Leads Columbus Restaurants With a 57KW Solar Array

Flannagans of Dublin restaurant became the first restaurant or bar in Central Ohio to deploy a large scale solar array. The 57KW installation will generate nearly half of the electricity for the restaurant/bar/beach volleyball facility in northern Columbs. To see live monitoring of the array and see how much it's generating at any time, click on the image below:

News Story from Ohio News Network on Solar By Soldiers

The Ohio News Network ran an excellent story about Senator Sherrod Brown's press conference at the kick off of Tipping Point Renewable Energy's Solar By Soldiers program. It's a bit (actually more than a bit) awkward to embed the actual video here, so follow this link to open their video player. Here's a link to the accompanying story.

Senator Sherrod Brown and Flannagan's of Dublin Help Launch Tipping Point's Solar By Soldiers Program At Press Conference

Tipping Point Renewable Energy would like to thank Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Flannagan's of Dublin for helping to launch the Solar by Soldiers program today.  Here are some pictures from this great event.  For more information about Solar by Soldiers, please contact us.

Solar By Soldiers Program Launched at Press Conference with U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown

Columbus, Ohio -- (August 8, 2011) --  Following is the text of the statement made by Tipping Point Renewable Energy Founder / CEO Eric Zimmer at the press conference with U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and the owner of the Flannagan’s of Dublin, David Straub at the launch of Tipping Point’s Solar By Soldiers© program.

Thank you Senator Brown.  

Today, we are officially launching a program that is near and dear to our hearts here at Tipping Point.  

When Tipping Point was founded just two years ago, we had a goal to improve our communities by using renewable energy. One of the things we have done is to make a commitment that we will use veterans to carry out our projects whenever possible.  

We want to make sure that as our veterans return home they are able to find good work in a growing field. We passionately feel, as Senator Brown does, that these heroes should not be worrying about where they are going to work and how they are going to feed their families after serving our country. 

With that in mind, we created the Solar by Soldiers program to formalize our commitment and to provide a framework within which we will provide training in green energy job skills to veterans, not just for our projects, but for the clean energy industry throughout Ohio.

Solar is currently the fastest growing industry in the United States. In tough economic times clean energy is a way to create jobs in both manufacturing and installation of these important technologies. Continued federal and state investment is key to this growth. I want to thank the federal government and the State of Ohio for investments they have made in clean energy in the past and urge them to consider extending and enhancing those programs.

We have over 20 million dollars worth of projects right here in central Ohio that we are working to launch to help create more jobs for these very worthy heroes.

I especially commend Senator Brown for his support of the Hiring Heroes Act to ensure that veterans are ready to re-enter the job market after their service. Also, his legislation to expand and improve the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit will help to continue the trend toward grid parity for solar energy.

I’d like to thank David Straub and Flannagan’s for making this all possible by making the commitment to using clean, safe solar energy to power his business.  David can tell you this for himself, but he made the decision to proceed with the project because solar energy does work in Ohio.  This project makes good economic sense in addition to benefitting the environment and the veterans involved in its construction.  

The solar array that you are looking at today will be generate about half of the annual electric requirements of Flannagan’s. Once the initial investment for this project is recovered in a few short years, the solar array will generate about half of Flannagan’s electricity for free for the next 25 or 30 years. Not only that, but the solar array will protect Flannagans from future electric rate increases that will inevitably come.

Finally, Id like to thank Daniel Hutchinson with Ohio Combat Veterans.  Daniel worked closely with us in the early stages of the Solar by Soldiers program to develop the vision for our program.  Although he couldn’t be here today, we thank him for his efforts and look forward to working with him and his organization as we continue to grow the Solar by Soldiers program.

Now, I’d like to introduce David Straub, owner of Flannagan’s and our host today for a his comments.

For more information on Tipping Point Renewable Energy, the Solar by Soldiers Program, or the solar array at Flannagan’s of Dublin contact Will Kenworthy at 614-321-3335 or will.kenworthy@tipenergy.com.  Additional information is availble at Tipping Point’s website:  www.tipenergy.com.

Ohio Ranks Second in Solar Panel Manufacturing

Tiipping Point and our crews are part of the fastest growing industry in the country.According to a report recently released by the Solar Energy Industries Assocation (SEIA), Ohio ranks second in the nation for the manufacture of solar panels.  The Toledo Blade reports:

The Solar Energy Industries Association of Washington says Ohio produced 66 megawatts of photovoltaic modules in the first quarter of 2011, up 50 percent from 44 megawatts of solar modules produced in the state during the first quarter of 2010.

Oregon was tops in the nation for solar manufacturing during the first quarter of this year, making 120 megawatts of solar modules during that time, according to the solar association.

The statistics were in the solar association's recent quarterly report. The association says Oregon

and Ohio have the largest amounts of solar manufacturing capacity in the country, which allowed them to beat out other major solar states, such as California and New Jersey.

Increased solar production means more jobs for Ohio and other states with manufacturing-based work forces, the solar group said.

The Solar Energy Industries Association of Washington says Ohio produced 66 megawatts of photovoltaic modules in the first quarter of 2011, up 50 percent from 44 megawatts of solar modules produced in the state during the first quarter of 2010.Oregon was tops in the nation for solar manufacturing during the first quarter of this year, making 120 megawatts of solar modules during that time, according to the solar association.The statistics were in the solar association's recent quarterly report.

The association says Oregon and Ohio have the largest amounts of solar manufacturing capacity in the country, which allowed them to beat out other major solar states, such as California and New Jersey.Increased solar production means more jobs for Ohio and other states with manufacturing-based work forces, the solar group said.

Read the whole article here.

We have a lot to be proud of here and are at the center of one of the fastest growing parts of the economy.  In fact the same report also found that the solar industry is the fastest growing industry in the US.  

Here is a link to the SEIA's press release on the report.