The Bell Group headquarters' parking structure is now home to the largest solar array in New Mexico. The installation covers five acres of parking area and will generate more than 1,600,000 kWh of clean electricity annually, which is enough to meet 80 percent of the company's electricity needs.
The 1.1-megawatt project uses more than 5,000 locally-made solar modules by SCHOTT Solar PV. The solar power system will avoid approximately 1,125 tons of CO2 emissions annually, while the solar structures provide shaded parking for employee and visitor vehicles.
However, in June, the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Health Care System in Albuquerque, New Mexico, announced it is installing a 3.2 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) system, which will be the largest PV system in the state. The VA system will include a car port and roof-mounted arrays, and will implement a building-integrated system to reduce demand from the grid.
In addition to SCHOTT, the Bell Group project implementation team included Affordable Solar Group and VE Group (Valley Electric), the prime contractor with offices in New Mexico and Colorado, and VE Group's local and regional subcontractors including Coupland-Moran Engineers, US Prefab, and National Roofing.
"As a business, we're always looking for ways to reduce our costs, and our new solar installation is lowering our electricity bills with clean, reliable energy generated by a local, high quality product," said Alan Bell, Managing Director of The Bell Group, an Albuquerque-based industrial distributor, in a statement. "It also helps us to meet our responsibilities as a business committed to environmentally friendly practices and the local economy."
