June 11, 2018
A company that has an environment-friendly approach to business recently launched a major clean energy initiative.
On the roof of Recleim’s appliance-recycling facility on Hard Street is a new system of solar panels that is generating electricity.
All of the power produced “is exported out to SCE&G’s grid,” said David Denny of Carpe Diem Developers. “SCE&G then provides a credit on Recleim’s electric bill for all of the solar energy that they receive.”
He added that the system would “reduce Recleim’s annual electric bills by over 60 percent.”
Carpe Diem, which is based in Birmingham, Alabama, partnered with Recleim to develop the project.
“There are just over 2,000 solar panels, and all the panels are warrantied for 25 years,” Denny said. “The system will probably pay for itself in two or three years.”
Southern Current of Charleston installed the solar panels.
“Recleim specializes in protecting the environment through capturing and destroying harmful ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gases trapped in old appliances,” said Recleim CEO Steve Bush. “For us, the opportunity for us to install a solar system on our roof was an extension of our mission to do what we can to protect the environment. We are also able to use the installation to help us manage our overall utility costs.”
Bush said he is eager to expand Recleim’s effort to produce clean energy.
“This is our first solar project, but it won’t be our last,” he said. “ We are already in the process of lining up a second solar installation on another one of our buildings in Graniteville, which will be installed later this year.”