Oracle Online

Jeff Sommers, owner of Izzy’s, said he was inspired to use solar energy to power his establishment after hearing about St. Paul’s Old Man River Cafe, a coffee shop that raised money for its solar roof through neighborhood donations.

“Individual people can’t easily afford solar energy,” he said. “So the idea came to pool money together and put a roof on the coffee shop.”

To complete the project, Sommers said he will spend an estimated $50,000. The roof will be turned into an eight-kilowatt solar electric system that will produce 30 percent of the shop’s electricity from sunlight.
Most solar power works when sunlight hits panels located on a roof or building, converting photovolactic (PV) cells into energy.

According to Sommers, raising money to buy the new solar electric roof, which will be installed on his cafe in the coming weeks, is not the simplest of endeavors.

Izzy’s has already raised nearly $30,000, he said, much less than what will be necessary for the project’s completion.

Most of the money raised was pooled from customer donations and a silent auction. Fundraising began in June of this year, and Sommers said that the cafe is still expecting a $5,000 grant from the city.

Sommers said that some of the solar panels that will be used on Izzy’s roof were acquired from a donation from the Green Institute, a St. Paul organization that promotes environmental stewardship. The available panels were left over from other roof-construction projects.

Running Izzy’s on solar power will not save loads of electricity bill money, however.

“It takes about 40 years for a solar powered system to pay for itself, though I think that is a bit of an overstatement,” Sommers said. “Savings are modest, but the impact on the environment is huge.”

While the plan for the cafe roof is expensive, the primary reason to use solar power is because of the amount of energy that will be saved in the neighborhood where the cafe is located, and, therefore, the project is worth the price in Sommers’ mind.

“I am deeply concerned about the environment,” he said. “As a small business, [Izzy’s has] an opportunity to be a leader in the community.”

Sommers said in the summer months, when people are using air conditioners and other electric devices at high rates, power outages in the area are not uncommon. In the past four years, Izzy’s has lost power six times. He hopes that his cafe’s use of solar power will make outages less frequent.

Neighbors and customers have been supportive, Sommers said. Volunteers will install the system, and opportunities to “sponsor a solar panel,” an attempt to further raise funds for the project, will soon become available. “Everyone who sponsors a panel will receive a gallon of ice cream,” he said.

Though environmental issues are important to Izzy’s owners, the cafe is first and foremost dedicated to its patrons.

“Izzy’s mission is to give great customer service and to serve great ice cream,” Sommers said.