San Antonio-based self-storage chain Stuff Hotel is spending some $150,000 to expand solar energy systems at its facilities in San Antonio and three other Texas cities.

The company installed a 28-kilowatt solar array at its 9018 Poteet Jourdanton Freeway location three years ago, using contractor Self Reliant Solar. It recently expanded that system by another 21-kilowatts and will use Austin-based Self Reliant to install solar at its units in Corpus Christi, Pleasanton and Denton.

“We did the first just to see how it worked, and it really made a lot of sense once we saw the money we could save,” said Chris Price, president of the Price Cos., owner/operation of the Stuff Hotel chain.

The expanded system is expected to shave $6,000 — or about 80 percent — from the San Antonio facility’s annual electricity bill, he says. The system is expected to pay for itself in about three years.

The $150,000 price tag for the systems and their installation factors out tax breaks and utility incentives, Price adds.

While Stuff Hotel operates a total of 10 storage facilities in Texas and Mississippi, Price says it’s limiting its solar upgrades to places where local utilities offer solar incentives.

“Those local incentives are the difference between making solar viable or not viable,” he says.

via Self Reliant Solar expands system for storage unit company – San Antonio Business Journal.