By James T. Hammond
Published February 16, 2010
Sixty solar panels atop the Main @ Broad building beside City Hall will provide about 80% of the building’s hot water, an example developer Bo Aughtry hopes will help instill a green building ethos in Greenville’s development and design community.
Main @ Broad includes a Marriott Courtyard hotel, and Aughtry said it is the first hotel in Marriott American hotels to employ such a solar hot water system.
“Our intention is to make environmentally friendly choices where possible and when financially feasible,” said Aughtry, principal of the Windsor/Aughtry Co.
The building has the infrastructure already installed to take advantage of future advances in solar technology, such as adding photo-voltaic panels in the future to generate electricity from the sun.
The Main @ Broad hotel is scheduled to open in the spring of this year.
The $250,000 additional cost to install the solar hot water system will be recouped in five to six years, said Frank Marshall, director of sales for FLS Energy, the Asheville company that installed the solar hot water system.
“Solar hot water is the low-hanging fruit of energy conservation,” said Marshall, noting that the basic principles have been used since Roman times, and continue to be improvised by handy-men in their homes.
But this system is no handy-man’s creation. According to John Clark of the South Carolina Energy Office, it is the largest solar hot water heating system employed in South Carolina.
“I hope that’s a record they don’t hold too long,” Clark said, adding that he believes this example and others will hasten the adoption of similar and larger systems in the near future.
With an expected lifespan of 25 years or more, Clark said the free energy being employed to heat the large building’s water means “energy dollars are staying in South Carolina,” instead of buying natural gas from the gulf states.
Mayor Knox White said the building with its green elements symbolize a change that is under way in Greenville.
“People who are coming to Greenville to live are looking for a green city,” White said. “It’s becoming more and more of a testament to who we think we are.”
The FLS Energy system will heat approximately 3,500 gallons of hot water on a sunny day. To ensure an adequate supply on cloudy days, the system has a natural gas backup heating system.
Marshall said the Marriott corporation already is looking at the Main @ Broad solar hot water system with the idea of promoting the use of such systems at other Marriott hotels nationwide.
“This is a marquee project for South Carolina,” Marshall said. “This gives us the opportunity to evolve into a green market leaders.”
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