Industrial Solar Installations Hold Revenue Potential

SAVANNAH, GA-Certain green building practices not only can provide economic benefits through greater energy efficiency, but they could also become potential revenue sources, say executives at AMB Property Corp., which is developing a center near this city’s port. The San Francisco-based REIT is developing its first LEED-certified project, a 3.3 million-sf speculative distribution center, on 249 acres near this city’s port.

The development kicked off with a 343,000-sf multi-tenant spec facility set for completion this spring, but it is two buildings with more than one million sf each that hold the promise for significant future revenue enhancement, according to John Morgan, AMB vice president, development, east region, and Steven Campbell, senior vice president and director of environmental and development services. The potential source of revenue is solar power.

“Many of our buildings have a million sf of roof area or more,” notes Morgan. “You need about one megawatt of power to run that building. That translates to about 100,000 sf of photovoltaic cells, which means you have 900,000 sf remaining where you could generate another nine megawatts of power.”