Roof for let: Local tariffs could aid new solar development

Looking for a new source of income for your business? Why not consider renting your roof to a solar development company?

That's what distribution company ProLogis has just done in Spain, in partnership with San Francisco solar company Recurrent Energy. Although this deal is obviously country-specific -- Spain is helping Recurrent Energy feed all the power generated back to the local utility with the help of a feed-in tariff -- the model represents the first of multiple projects under which Recurrent is working with commercial and industrial businesses to convert roof real estate into solar power farms. The company currently has about 500 megawatts of capacity under development.

Here's a "photo rendering" of the project at five ProLogis building in Park Sant Boi.

The specific deal with ProLogis covers 4.8 megawatts of rooftop solar capacity on eight distribution centers in Barcelona and Madrid. All of the technology will be connected to the grid, feeding the power back to the local utility. Essentially, Recurrent Energy is leasing the rooftops from ProLogis.

Under the agreement, ProLogis is actually helping with the construction, which is supposed to start in October 2009. The projects are supposed to be completed by mid-2010.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com