PALM SPRINGS – Sunlight beat down on workers one morning as they attached solar collectors to a metal rack on the roof of a carport. The heat may be harsh on their backs, but it’s ideal for warming up large pools.
When they’re done installing the solar water heating system in the next week, the pool at the Coco Cabana community will be heated almost entirely by the sun during the blazing summers. In the cooler winters, the pool will be heated roughly half by natural gas, half by the sun.
The Coco Cabana project is the latest by SunUp Solar Systems, a Palm Springs company that manufactures, distributes and installs solar water heating systems at hotels, industrial buildings and apartments. Instead of generating electricity to power lights or the air conditioning in a home, solar collectors directly warm water running through pipes. At night during the summers, the collectors can also cool the water temperature to the low 80s.
“It’s archaic to heat domestic hot water with fossil fuels,” said Rick Rothman, CEO of SunUp.
SunUp is designing commercial pool systems that can qualify for state rebates under the California Solar Initiative Thermal program. The California Public Utilities Commission offers a rebate of $7 per therm — a unit of heat energy — produced by the system. In some cases, after rebate, systems can turn out to be completely free. Multifamily and commercial properties qualify for rebates of up to $500,000.
It was an unintended consequence of the state’s rebate calculator, and the solar industry doesn’t expect the freebie to last long.
Incentive funds are limited to $250 million, with $25 million allocated for projects in low-income areas. The state’s goal is to have 200,000 solar water-heating systems installed by 2017, displacing a total 585 million therms.
The state website lists several other contractors besides SunUp that are eligible for the state program in the Coachella Valley: San Diego-based California Solar Thermal Inc. and REVCO Solar Engineering Inc. in Palm Desert, among others.
“There are very few companies that do what we do,” said Peter Dunbar, director of sales at SunUp.
SunUp has also installed new solar pool-heating systems at the Villa Alegria condos in Palm Springs, the Mesquite Country Club and the Aqua Soleil Hotel and Spa in Desert Hot Springs. Aqua Soleil had both a pool and domestic hot water serving the 102 hotel rooms, laundry and restaurant.
How it works
In Coco Cabana, SunUp workers had painstakingly shoveled mounds of dirt and cut through the concrete sidewalk to lay down pipe in long, narrow trenches.
One pipe supplies the swimming pool water through the filter to the solar collectors, which are made by the New Jersey company Aquatherm. Another pipe returns the heated liquid to the pool or a gas heater to augment the solar heat in the winter months.
In January and February, solar collectors can generate 40-50 percent of the heat at the desired temperature, Rothman said. A natural gas heater can generate the rest. From March to October, the solar collectors can provide nearly 100 percent of the heat generation. Competition pools are about 78 degrees. Hotels and apartment complex typically set their pools much warmer, at 88 degrees.
Growing market
In the 1980s, solar water-heating systems, rather than photovoltaic panels, were more prevalent, said Brad Heavner, policy director for CALSEIA, a solar energy association based in Sacramento.
But when natural gas prices plummeted, demand fell for solar water-heating systems. At the same time, the cost of electricity went up while photovoltaic prices dipped.
The solar industry is again changing. New rebates for solar water-heated swimming pools will be a shot in the arm for industry, Heavner said.
“The incentives are going to be high enough to make it a good deal for a whole lot of customers who have a commercial heated pool,” Heavner said.
The Public Utilities Commission may propose a limit to the incentive, Rothman said. The state could consider a 50 percent cap, instead of a 100 percent rebate, as well as a lower dollar incentive of $5 per therm produced.
Receiving the best rebate requires a careful balance to avoid the under-design or overdesign of a system.
“The art of the design is to fit the equilibrium, the optimization strategy where payback is best,” Rothman said.
SunUp’s next move is to expand beyond being a contracted installer. The firm plans to manufacture more efficient solar collectors under a private label.
In December 2013, the company joined the CViHub Palm Springs Accelerator Campus, a 3.5-acre property near the Palm Springs International Airport. The CViHub, managed by the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership, is a business incubator for high-tech startups.
SunUp is designing low iron glass on solar collectors that will have a transmission rate of 95 percent, more efficient than the industry rate of 89-91 percent. The collectors will be made in China.
With a more efficient product, Rothman hopes to sell prepackaged solar water-heating systems to export around the world.
Rothman also plans to transform SunUp’s space at the Accelerator Campus into a training school. The company will train contractors, plumbers, distributors and anyone who wants to learn the technology for free, Rothman said. Participants will learn how to design, sell and install the system.
Many contractors are not skilled on solar thermal systems, Rothman said. But he’s preparing for a resurgence of the industry.
“Solar heating is back around,” Heavner said. “There’s more untapped potential for reducing fossil fuel use.”
Dominique Fong is a business and real estate reporter for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at (760) 778-4661, dominique.fong@desertsun.com and on Twitter @dominiquefong.
Correction
The solar collectors used by SunUp Solar are manufactured by Aquatherm Industries, a New Jersey company. An earlier version of this story misidentified the manufacturer.
The company
SunUp Solar Systems Inc.
(760) 325-3000
The California Solar Initiative Thermal Program
www.csithermal.com