Source: Fencepost Magazine Volume 53, Issue 5, September/October 2024
Author: Lisa Kopochinski
USAutomatic, LLC, a company that manufacturers and installs battery powered, solar-charged automatic gate openers, was formed in Texas in 1994 by four diversely knowledgeable men — Mike Storms, Mike Quattlebaum, David Taylor, and the late Tom McCutcheon — who saw the need to develop a reliable opener.
For the past three decades, the company’s Lewisville facility has been home to all of its operations: Research and Development, Production and Customer Support. Powered by 271 solar panels, the building is a reflection of its long-standing dedication to solar energy.
"From the start, we focused on producing as much of our products as possible in the US. This commitment led us to name our first model the ‘Patriot,’" recalls President Mike Storms.
Today, USAutomatic’s Texas facility is home to more than 270 panels, generating 12-million-watt hours, and 78 percent of its electricity use monthly.
"All of our gate openers have always been designed to work with solar power. Many of the accessories we sell are also designed to be solar friendly. That is, engineered to be compatible with a solar powered system. And, we have proven that our products work in a variety of settings and in a variety of geographic zones, including Canada and Alaska."
With a team 20 individuals dedicated to servicing and educating its customers in harvesting the sun to run their equipment, Storms says, "Sustainability isn’t just a buzz word. It is a way of living, and we pride ourselves in not only providing reliable equipment but by using solar power in our everyday lives."
EARLY MEMORIES
Storms recalls early on that one of the early buildings they leased lacked the amount of sunlight needed to get full benefit from a solar array. This was one of the reasons that led them to their current building in 2018 at 170 Valley Ridge Blvd. in Lewisville because of the potential to add solar panels on the roof.
"The roof was outdated and very inefficient, so it was the ideal time to replace it with a better design. Once we had it replaced with an energy efficient roof material, we searched out solar panel installation companies. By 2020 we had chosen a contractor and had 271 panels installed."
Their system is an on-grid installation that was designed to get as close to net zero as possible without going off-grid and utilizing batteries. The building also has a diesel generator that instantly supplies emergency back-up power for all of its essential systems and basic needs should the grid go down.
WHAT EXACTLY IS NET ZERO?
Net zero refers to a state in which the greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere are balanced by removal out of the atmosphere. The term net zero is important because — for CO2 at least — this is the state at which global warming stops.
The Paris Agreement underlines the need for net zero. It requires states to ‘achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century.’
To ‘go net zero’ is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and/or to ensure that any ongoing emissions are balanced by removals.
The ‘net’ in net zero is important because it will be very difficult to reduce all emissions to zero on the timescale needed. As well as deep and widespread cuts in emissions, we will likely need to scale up removals. In order for net zero to be effective, it must be permanent. Permanence means that removed greenhouse gas does not return into the atmosphere over time, for example through the destruction of forests or improper carbon storage.
Permanent or hard ‘net zero’ refers to a balance between all greenhouse gas sinks and sources that is sustained over matching time scales.
Source: www.Netzeroclimate.org
"During the installation, the only interruption to our business was the necessity to modify our electrical room," Storms recalls. "This was a very unobtrusive interruption, ensuring we could fully utilize the power that we would be producing."
He says the most challenging part of the process was finding the right electricity plan and provider to maximize the buy back value of the excess electricity that its solar panels would be producing.
"Adding these panels to our building was a natural progression of our dedication to clean power. Our solar array produces 100,000 kilowatts of power on a good day — much more than what we need to run a regular workday. The rest goes back to the grid for others to use and helps offset our nighttime and rainy-day use of the grid."
Storms says the app that came with the installation provides real time data about energy production, as well as production history.
"This tool really helps us monitor the power created and it continually reinforces our decision to move to solar for running our facility. To date, we have saved the equivalent of 6,000 trees and eliminated 800,000 lbs of CO2 emission. We have generated over 500 megawatt hours of clean power."
And if this isn’t enough, the company’s electricity cost is more than 80 percent lower than it was prior to the installation in 2020.
"But our local rates have nearly doubled so the savings is actually greater," he adds.
When asked about the federal tax credit that can be used to offset the cost of the materials and installation, he says many people don’t know about this.
"We were able to take advantage of a 26 percent tax credit in 2020. And it is now 30 percent in 2024."
To sum up, he says "We have been manufacturing efficient solar gate openers in our industry for 30 years. We know the ins and outs of harvesting the power of the sun, we know the cost savings of using solar production vs buying electricity, we know that solar power is reliable, and we know that powering by solar will help our planet."