Cogenra Solar announced a contract to build solar cogeneration arrays at La Posada, an accredited, continuing care retirement community in Southern Arizona.
The community is home to more than 700 residents and will drive down ongoing energy expenses with multiple solar cogeneration systems, providing renewable hot water and electricity for resident use, laundry facilities and a fitness pavilion.
“When La Posada decided to pursue an alternative energy plan for our continuing care campus, we wanted to uphold and promote our reputation as a leader in the U.S. market of over 10,000 aging services facilities. In keeping with our reputation, it was important to our community to set a standard for alternative energy product design,” said Lisa Israel, La Posada president and CEO.
La Posada will be Cogenra’s first installation in Arizona, where the fully certified solar cogeneration solution is eligible for both solar electric and solar hot water performance-based incentives provided by Tucson Electric Power’s (TEP) Renewable Energy Credit Purchase Program and other Arizona utilities.
With solar cogeneration’s dual incentives and robust federal tax advantages, such as the Investment Tax Credit and accelerated depreciation, Arizona businesses will experience a payback period of four to six years, nearly half that of standard PV installations.
“Even in Tucson’s desert climate, natural gas is burned every day of the year to heat water for domestic applications,” said Cogenra CEO Dr. Gilad Almogy. “With solar cogeneration, PV waste heat is harvested to provide domestic hot water needs, displacing valuable natural gas while cooling the PV cells for optimal performance in the desert conditions. This win-win enables a greater environmental contribution and faster payback than any other solar solution.”
Written by John Yedinak
