Up on the roof-top: Deutsche Bank adds solar array to New Jersey building

Are more businesses going to do their own thing when it comes to solar in 2010? Deutsche Bank has built a 250-kilowatt solar photovoltaic array on the roof of its office building in Piscataway, N.J.

The array will offset about 143 metric tons of carbon emissions annually, roughly the equivalent produced by 16,232 gallons of gasoline. During peak operation in daylight hours, the installation will be able to provide up to 100 percent of its power needs from the grid. Over the course of the year, this will translate into about 12 percent of its overall energy needs. There are 1,066 modules on the 83,000-square-foot, and it can produce a capacity of up to 270,000 kilowatt hours per year.

Deutsche Bank is actually doing a lot more than this in renewable energy use. It has reduced its annual energy consumption by 19 million kilowatt hours over the past few years and sources about 67 percent of its entire global energy consumption from renewable sources. The company was named a 2009 Green Power Partner of the Year by the Environmental Protection Agency.