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NASHVILLE, TN (Solar Energy News) - A deal with a solar company means Second Harvest Food Bank will be able to offer more meals.

Nashville-based Silicon Ranch asked Second Harvest to install solar panels on its roof at no cost. Then the estimated 2600 kilowatt hours harvested each year from the 840 panels would be returned to the grid, and energy credits issued by the Tennessee Valley Authority would be split by Silicon Ranch and Second Harvest.

Second Harvest spokeswoman Tasha Kennard told The Nashville Ledger that money saved in the process will be used to distribute food (http://bit.ly/ydibeE ).



"Our leadership team had been looking at some cost-saving measures to reduce our operating and utility expenses, so it really dovetails nicely into some of the different things we were looking into with cost savings," Kennard said. "With this there were no installation fees, no maintenance fees. It was literally zero work from us other than a few meetings with them."

The site is scheduled to begin harvesting solar energy on March 3.

"Each year that we harness this energy we will be able to provide, at minimum, 480,000 meals into our 46-county service area as a result," Kennard said. She says around 15,000 meals each year are currently distributed: "Adding half a million to that is significant."

"For nonprofits, this is a very easy solution to help further your mission," she adds. "If you have a facility that can host a grid-type project, it is definitely worth looking into."

Meanwhile, Kennard says Second Harvest would like to find more partnerships that benefit its mission and the environment. She said 1 of their largest concerns is disposing of large amounts of food waste.

"Food banks across the United States deal with a lot of waste in terms of the packaging that we receive products in, and the food that we receive that can't be distributed because of its date," she says. "We have to discard that." read more