Electric Roof Offers Financial Jolt

Tube Specialties produces products for Daimler, the parent company for Freightliner Trucks and other heavy truck industry manufacturers.  This family operated business started at their Troutdale location in 1996 and also has another location in North Carolina.  Both facilities have 212,000 square feet of manufacturing floor space.  In addition to servicing Freightliner Corporation, they also make products for the construction industry and parts for agricultural equipment. Established in 1963 by their father, Mark and Gary Weyhrich are the two brothers currently active in the business.

Tube Specialities, Troutdale, Oregon

 

Each of their two plants has 150 employees providing family wage jobs.  In order to survive in the current economy they have strived to provide economies within their business to maintain those jobs. Among the concepts was the idea of utilizing the solar roof panels to offset the cost of their utilities.

Duro-Last roofing, in conjunction with Solar Nation and Competitive Commercial Roofing, replaced the entire roof of Tube Specialties Troutdale facility with a prefabricated membrane. The roofing is customized for each specific application because it is designed to have solar panels anchored to the roofing material.  All the work is done in the factory located in Grants Pass, Oregon, and is guaranteed for 25 years, plus a 15 year guarantee on the contents of the building in case the roof leaks. 

The roof is designed to last as long as the solar panels that are embedded in the membrane of the roof. This Duro-Last roof is designed to reflect 85% of the sun’s rays. This makes it the highest reflective material in the commercial roofing industry. They are unique in that they make everything within their plant including the fasteners, edge detail, plates, and screws.  Nothing is outsourced.  They have four plants within the United States and they are family owned. This company received the 2009 Oregon Sustainability Award from the governor’s office.

One of the final pieces, and the one earning Tube Specialties a return on the investment (ROI) of their new roof, is the application of solar panels generating electricity on their roof.  Solar Nation is a local Gresham company that not only provides the solar panels, but the design, engineering and financial model and the complete electrical installation. Solar Nation has built their business model on the concept of having the business owner come to them for a turnkey installation. The business owner initially has to finance the project, but 95% of the investment is financially reimbursed through the Business Energy Tax Credit, Federal Investment Tax credit or grant, and finally the Energy Trust of Oregon.  So after installation the business owner is out of pocket 1-5% for the total project.  The projected ROI is expected to be five years generating many tens of thousands of dollars in energy cost savings over the life the solar panels and roofing material.

You might question that the weather in Oregon is not conducive to generating electricity from solar panels.  Cooler climates are actually better suited to generating electricity then hot climates and that is because in very hot climates, the solar panels are designed to shut down if the sun is too intense.  Our weather mirrors the same characteristics of Germany and this year alone they are building five gigawatts of electricity (one billion watts of electricity) which is equivalent to the production of five nuclear power plants.  Like Germany, Oregon is one of the leading states in providing incentives for energy independence for our businesses.

Each of the companies providing the products, engineering, design and installation are experiencing explosive growth in their businesses.  Each business shared with me that they are hiring additional people to handle the increased customer demand for their solar products. They are providing the state of the art technology that can be delivered to a business offsetting their cost of providing electricity for their operation.  Those companies that survive this economy will do so because they taken the bold steps needed to provide efficiencies and creative sources of income for their companies.  After all, not long ago who would have ever thought your roof could generate money for your business.