Namaste Solar Shines on Local Nonprofits
Solar PV company is donating 1 percent of its revenue to install solar panels

by Zach Mortice
Associate Editor

How do you . . . structure a sustainability grant program for nonprofits that works with legislative energy policies?

Summary: Denver-area solar panel installer Namaste Solar is donating solar panels to local nonprofits. Two different grant types will give 1 percent of its projected 2008 revenue to these groups. The grants are designed to work with state and federal alternative energy rebates and credits.

A Colorado solar energy company is offering a grant program to ease the cost of solar photovoltaic panels for local nonprofits. Namaste Solar says they’re likely the first solar panel installer that has a formalized grant program. The Boulder-based company is donating 1 percent of their projected 2008 revenue to the program, which works with the state’s progressive energy policies and rebate incentives.

“Namaste Solar has always been founded on giving back to the community,” says Heather Leanne Nangle, the Namaste co-owner in charge of the grant program.

Each year, Namaste plans to give out two sets of grants—matching and full—with one grant submission deadline in January and another in June. (The next deadline will be June 27.) Nonprofits receiving a matching grant will subtract a percentage of the cost of the panels and their installation (often 50-60 percent), which is paid for by the state’s sustainable energy credits. Then Namaste will pay for half of the remaining cost. Nonprofits receiving a full grant will have Namaste pay for all expenses after Colorado’s credit and rebate programs pay them back. With a matching grant for a solar array that costs $30,000, $15,000 might be covered by the state’s energy rebates and credits, and Namaste would then pay $7,500. The company offers both Grid-Tie solar electric systems, where excess solar energy is sold back into the power grid, and off-grid battery systems that store energy for later use, but only the Grid-Tie systems are used for the grant program.

When evaluating nonprofits that have applied for grants, Nangle says her company first examines how effective PV panels would be at the installation site and makes sure that the nonprofit’s mission is concurrent with Namaste’s values, though these organizations need not be environmental. Only nonprofits in the Denver-Boulder area are eligible. Nangle estimates that they’ll give out 4-8 grants with the new program.

Nangle says that instead of taking salary bonuses and personally investing them in nonprofits and donations themselves, the employees at Namaste opted to forgo bonuses and funnel this money into the grant program. Unlike a simple, one-time monetary gift, Nangle says the donation of solar PV panels saves money over the entire lifetime of the system. “It’s a long-term gift,” she says.

Xcel ahead
Namaste has gone from a startup to one of the area’s largest solar panel installers in three years, with the help of Colorado’s energy policies and rebates. Its Amendment 37, passed by voters in 2004, requires the state’s biggest utility companies to get 10 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2015. Four percent of this amount must be derived from solar power. One utility, Xcel Energy, has instituted a rebate program for customers who invest in solar power. They gave out $19.5 million in 2007 to about 1,000 homes, according to the Denver Business Journal. For small solar arrays up to 10 kilowatts, which make up most of Namaste’s business, Xcel pays $4.50 per watt, which often covers 50-60 percent of a system’s total cost. Larger systems from 10 to 100 kilowatts pay $2.00 per kilowatt upfront, and then give customers a continual renewable energy credit over the life of the system.

This energy mandate and other federal policies are set to expire by the end of the coming year. Namaste founder Blake Jones says that they’re “on the chopping block, or an opportunity to extend funding,” and that any retreat of these policies would seriously damage his company’s ability to offer grants and turn a profit.

Though strictly an active sustainability system company now, Jones says he and his employees have discussed expanding their business to incorporate passive sustainability technology and practices. “That’s where the low-hanging fruit is,” he says. “That’s where you’re going to get the biggest bang for your buck.”

Community partners
Namaste has had a history of philanthropy beyond this year’s grant program as well. They donated the installation costs of a solar array to the Watershed School in Boulder, a private alternative middle school and high school. This donation came about after Watershed School students took a class about energy and sustainability and wanted to apply their lessons to the Watershed campus. They found Namaste Solar, and the staff came to the school to teach them more about solar energy. “[They were] incredibly generous with their time—meeting with our kids, planning the project, mapping it out,” says Head of School Jason Berv.

Namaste also donated time to install a solar array at the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless. Greg Harms, the shelter’s executive director, says that these solar panels save the nonprofit $5,000 a year and helped to qualify them for a rebate that allowed them to add more beds and serve more people. “It’s probably one of the few solar panel installations in the world where it probably, literally saved lives,” he says.