From Guest Blogger Jake Fisher: Emerging Trends for Solar Energy Usage in Businesses

More companies today are moving toward using solar energy. There are a number of ways they are doing this, as well as reasons for the trend. In 2012, the increase of companies’ use of solar power in the United States grew by 40 percent.

Regional Trends

While there are companies using solar energy all over the United States, there are some areas that see more solar energy usage than others. The east and west coasts are leaders in regional and geographic trends when it comes to using solar energy for business. With a large number of retail businesses in both areas that have decided this is the best way to go for power, it’s not surprising to see that other companies are catching on.

Some of the southern states are also seeing an uptick in the number of companies using this technology. Arizona has many distribution centers as well as retail outlets that are using solar technology. Texas and Florida also boast a growing number of solar energy companies.

Solar Energy is Cheap

It’s not surprising that each company that uses solar energy has a number of reasons that they are using the technology. There are several reasons for corporations to use it. First, it’s cheap. Some of these companies are even able to sell power back to the energy providers, making it a large benefit for the company. Once the solar panels are installed, the upkeep is minimal. In addition, the price of solar panels has dropped significantly over the last few years.

Tax Breaks

In addition to the low cost of running on solar power, these companies get added benefits from the government. When a company is using solar technology to power their business, they get tax breaks. This helps these large companies pay less in taxes. Depending on where the company is located, they may get both state and federal tax breaks for using green technology. Even large corporations are going green. In fact, Walmart is the leading company for solar energy usage.

Great PR

One of the other big reasons that many companies are going green is that it makes for a great public relations story. Some of these companies are in desperate need of good PR, and using solar energy can help get their brand out there in a positive way. While this is generally not the driving factor for most companies who use solar power, it is an added benefit that these companies can use to ensure that those in charge of making decision choose to use solar.

Companies Using Solar

Image via Flickr by Walmart

There are many large companies that are using solar energy. As previously mentioned, Walmart is the leading company in solar energy in the United States. IKEA stores also use solar panels to power its stores. Toyota facilities have installed solar energy in their manufacturing plants. The corporate office of Kohl’s is run on solar energy as well. Even some Walgreens retail outlets have started using the technology. These are just a few of the large companies that have turned to solar energy over the last few years.

The Future

While many of the companies listed don’t have all of their facilities using solar panels, many of them are moving toward that. For example, Walmart has 215 units installed, while they have significantly more stores than that throughout the country. The future of solar energy and corporations is intertwined. As more companies realize the benefits of going green and using the technology available to them, they will start using it. This will benefit these companies, but it will also benefit everyone else, since it will help continue driving down the cost of the technology.

With many corporations and smaller companies starting to see the benefits of green technology, and solar energy in particular, it’s no surprise that the growing trend in power is solar. More companies are going to follow the trend over the next year or two, and eventually it may be so commonplace to see solar energy panels on businesses that it’s barely mentioned any longer.