Installation of solar panels on rooftops a boon for New Jersey businesses

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http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2010/05/installation_of_solar_panels_o.html

Surveying the roof of his company’s warehouse in Cherry Hill, Mitchell Trellis sees money.

Thousands of gleaming solar photovoltaic panels cover an area bigger than six football fields, generating 1.32-megawatts of electricity — enough to power 200 homes — and lowering the warehouse’s utility bill 25 percent.

“When you go up on to the roof of a building, it’s wasted space,” said Trellis, president of NFI Solar, an affiliate of National Freight Industries, which owns 6 million square feet of commercial real estate in New Jersey alone. “We saw values going up here and thought this was a great investment.”

NFI Solar and hundreds of other businesses in the state are installing solar panels at a greater rate than ever these days, taking advantage of otherwise unused space such as warehouse roofs. The economics have never been better, with some companies recouping their investment in five years.

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