Pizza Port: Carlsbad Solar Power

Pizza Port owners Gina and Vince Marsaglia have turned their popular new restaurant and brewery in Carlsbad into an environmentally responsible powerhouse. The location contains the company's first canning line and distribution center under a large flat rooftop, an ideal location for PV technology to capture sunlight and produce electricity. The roof mounted system is comprised of 440 locally manufactured Kyocera solar panels and a pair of Advanced Energy inverters that are expected to save around $30,000 dollars per year. A monitoring system will capture and display production data to restaurant guests to illustrate the environmental benefits of the solar power system, including a running timeline of greenhouse gas and carbon offsets. Gina and her husband worked with Sullivan Solar Power to install a residential system on their Carlsbad home in 2011 and are happy with the environmental and financial gains the system provides. Anticipating the rise in electricity cost, the decision was made to solarize the new Pizza Port hub to help protect against utility rate hikes. Additionally, two electric vehicle charging stations are scheduled for installation to accommodate the surge of customers driving electric vehicles. "Pizza Port is an all-time favorite dining facility for locals, and the company is now setting the example for local small businesses, demonstrating their commitment to clean energy by capturing the abundance of sunshine in our region," said Daniel Sullivan, founder and president of Sullivan Solar Power.