As of yesterday, May 7th, 2015, Factory Five Racing’s solar array is fully functional!  The system that we have installed over the last few months is a 181 kWh array of over 600 solar panels.  In the first day of operation, the system produced more power than we used!  That means that every single Factory Five chassis is welded with 100% renewable power from the sun.  How cool is that?!

Left to Right: Sandra, Nate, Jesper, the electrician Steve, and Dave Smith.

Above: The solar panels are on the southwest-facing roof surface.

Below: You can logon to the SolrenView website at any time to see what our actual solar power production is!  Yesterday, we generated 1,135 kWh of energy!  Our company average usage is about 800 kWh per day.

In less than 2 days, our solar system saved over 228 gallons of gasoline, could have charged nearly half a million smartphones, and saved more than 2 tons of carbon emissions!

Sandra DeBurgo in Accounting did all the legwork on the financing of the $400,000 system, so she had the honor of turning on the power for the first time!

Steve from the electrical contractor stepped the crew through the operations of the inverters and emergency shut down procedures.  The inverters work to convert the DC-power from the solar cells on the roof to AC-power that is supplied to the building with excess going to the electrical grid.

People sometimes think of hot rodders as not being environmentally minded.  This couldn’t be further from the truth, and now Factory Five can proudly say that our operation’s electrical consumption is carbon-neutral and derives from solar power.

If you use a donor car, the Factory Five you build will be crafted with renewable power and powered by re-purposed running gear!

The DC-power inverters occupy a very small space next to the main electrical company transformer along the side of the building.

Construction on the system began in the winter.  Check out full photos and construction!