Mike Campbell, GM of the Hilton Garden Inn Indianapolis, admits the solar panels now being installed on the roof of his hotel started out as a “harebrained scheme.”

Campbell was looking for ways to lower rising utility costs and differentiate the already environmentally sensitive hotel. “I looked for the most outlandish thing I could think of,” he says. Solar panels, even in the often dark and dreary Midwest, were the answer.

And he’s getting it done for a heavily discounted price thanks to a grant from the Indiana Department of Energy and Defense. The total cost of the panels and installation will be around $33,000, but the grant provides roughly $5 per watt, or $19,600 for the 4.05 kW solar array. The Hilton Garden Inn, owned and operated by First Hospitality Group, will then get a 30-percent federal tax credit on the remaining balance (almost $14,000).

Plus Campbell gets a marketing boost with the unique rooftop. Part of the grant funds an educational component, which will be a real-time display in the lobby and on the web showing the energy production from the solar panels and potentially an in-room video explanation of the process.

The panels will provide for approximately five percent of the hotel’s total power consumption, but could actually help more. The power company measures the building’s usage based on the top three days of the month, which Campbell says are obviously the hottest, sunniest days of the year when the air conditioner is working overtime, also the same days the solar panels are providing the most usable energy. Ultimately it will lessen the amount of electricity he has to buy from his utility company, Indianapolis Power and Light.

“Hotel managers have so much to do, this is a blessing,” says Campbell, who’s been the GM since the hotel opened in 2003. “Solar panels are very low maintenance. You don’t have to check and revisit them. It just produces energy…for the next 30 years.”

Grants like the one the Hilton Garden Inn received could be available to hotels throughout the country and Campbell points out Germany, approximately on the same latitude as Indianapolis, is one of the biggest users of solar power in the world. It’s not just an option for those in the Southwest. Campbell found out about the Indiana grant program through his state’s websites and worked with the installation company—Third Sun Solar and Wind Power out of Athens, OH—to write the grant proposal. Indiana Department of Energy and Defense “has funds set aside for this every year,” Campbell says, adding the educational opportunities at a hotel make it an even more attractive proposition.

The grant was approved late last year and installation started at the 16-story, 180-room Hilton Garden Inn in February. The hotel, an historic building constructed in 1915, maintains a strong commitment to sustainable initiatives and Campbell says an ozone laundry system could be his next “harebrained scheme.” — Eric Stoessel

Web Resources: http://www.hiltongardenindianapolis.com/index.htm, http://www.fhginc.com/site/, http://www.in.gov/oed/