Stencil Ease, an Old Saybrook manufacturer, is taking advantage of a special financing program to install a solar photovoltaic system on its roof.
Headquartered at 7 Center Road West, the company makes a variety of stencils used to make paint designs on pavement, walls and other surfaces. The business’ stencils are used to make lines and handicapped parking symbols in parking lots, hopscotch games on playgrounds, and runway lines and symbols at airports, for example.
According to the company, it is the largest specialty stencil manufacturer in the country.
The project, which will include 208 solar panels, is expected to generate more than 90 percent of the company’s electricity supply, according to a joint announcement from the Connecticut Green Bank and the property owner, Greenho Enterprises.
Image courtesy Stencil Ease
Mackey Dykes, vice president of commercial and institutional programs at the Connecticut Green Bank, said the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program is helping many Connecticut manufacturers like Stencil Ease reduce their energy costs. The Connecticut Green Bank provides financing through the C-PACE program.
“With a lower energy burden, these businesses can focus on their products and services, while increasing their bottom line,” Dykes said.
The General Assembly established the bank in 2011 to leverage public and private funds for energy efficiency projects in Connecticut.
Stencil Ease is the first commercial/industrial business in Old Saybrook to take advantage of the C-PACE financing, according to the announcement. Through C-PACE, property owners can make energy efficiency upgrades without paying money upfront. Instead, they repay the money through their community’s property tax billing system, similar to a water or sewer assessment.
The solar array installation is expected to cost about $215,000, but the company expects an average annual energy cost savings of approximately $20,000.
The Greenho family formerly owned Stencil Ease. Brian Greenho, principal of Greenho Enterprises of Old Lyme, which still owns the Old Saybrook property, indicated he sold the Stencil Ease business to private equity in 2015.
“Through my commercial real estate and solar development company, Greenho Enterprises LLC, I wanted to make an environmentally conscious decision to globally reduce overall consumption of fossil fuels,” Greenho said in the announcement.
According to the Secretary of the State’s office and Better Business Bureau, Liftline Capital LLC currently owns Stencil Ease.
Stencil Ease is also getting a $14,081 Energy on the Line grant, which aims to give state manufacturers additional net energy savings from a C-PACE project.
Greenho plans to make further “green” improvements to the Old Saybrook property, including adding electric vehicle charging stations by 2021.
For more information on the C-PACE program, visit www.cpace.com.
Contact Michelle Tuccitto Sullo at msullo@newhavenbiz.com
