?Staff photo by D. Ross Cameron

WITH SOARING electricity bills in the wake of the recent heat wave, business is shining at alternative energy companies like Berkeley solar installation and design company Sun Light and Power Co.

“We thrive on disaster energy disasters, anyway,” said Gary Gerber, who founded the 40-employee company 30 years ago. Revenue this year is expected to reach about $9 million, up more than 70 percent from last year’s $5.2 million.

Sun Light and Power has installed solar panels in homes and other structures all over the Bay Area. If you’ve driven down University Avenue in Berkeley recently, you may have noticed the company’s sign on the University Avenue Senior Housing building under construction near Sacramento Street.
The company also installed the solar hot water system for the Brisbane Community Pool, as well as solar panels for Emeryville’s City Hall.

Not only does the business talk the talk, it walks the walk on its own premises, with green features including a rooftop solar system, a biodiesel-fueled truck fleet and a rug made of recycled polyethylene soda bottles.

Both sticker shock at high PG&E bills and recently passed legislation may give companies like Sun Light a boost. Last week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed SB 1, a key element of the “Million Solar Roofs” initiative creating more incentives for homeowners to buy, and builders to offer solar-powered energy.

“There has been a meteoric rise in our business, and related businesses, in the last three or four years,” Gerber said.

Sun Light and Power is by no means the only solarinstallation company around the Bay. Some competitors include Berkeley’s PowerLight Corp., which has installed large-scale commercial solar electric systems and last year entered the residential solar market; Castro Valley’s Sky Power Systems; Alamo’s Quality Solar; and Borrego Solar Systems Inc. of Berkeley, founded in 1980, which has installed commercial and residential solar electric systems.

Gerber says he got involved in an energy-conserving business for love ? or, perhaps, ideals ? not money. The ardent environmentalist, who wears a solar watch and drives an electric car, became a convert in the early 1970s while taking a class on energy required for engineering majors at the University of California, Berkeley.

“The professor gave an overview of the world’s energy sources. It struck me that they were all finite except one,” Gerber said.

Solar panels can help households save on electric bills, but the initial investment is generally at least $12,000 minimum, even allowing for rebates and tax credits. For most homeowners, it would take seven to 10 years of energy savings to recoup that investment. In response, Gerber says solar panels add to a house’s resale value. He cited a Wells Fargo Bank report in 2003 that concluded, “Based on a recent study by ICF Consulting (funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency), energy saving measures such as solar can add $20 in home value for every $1 of yearly energy cost savings.”

Also, he said, “it’s an insurance policy against rate increases in the future.” To calculate your possible saving, you can use the California Energy Commission’s calculator at http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/renewables/estimator/index.html.

A tour of Sun Light’s West Berkeley office is like a lesson in creative conservation. From the welcome mat made of recycled tires to the non-polluting paint (appropriately enough, green and yellow) on the walls, and the biodiesel boiler, seemingly every element is energy-saving.

Even the conference room table, a gleaming 8-foot tempered glass rectangle atop a curved reflecting base, is recycled. It’s a skylight panel from a sunroof a customer rejected.

“That’s good re-use of an attractive material,” said Pamela Evans, coordinator of the Alameda County Green Business Program. Not surprisingly, Sun Light has been a certified green business since 2002. And, Evans says, the firm doesn’t rest on its laurels. “They’re always looking for a new way to be green.”

Bernadette Del Chiaro of Environment California said, “They’re a great company. By providing expertise and providing an example through their offices, Sun Light and Power is a valuable resource for Californians” in the goal of building more solar roofs.