United Southern Bank Announces Big Solar Project

    “We waited a long time. Until it made economic sense.”
   United Southern Bank CEO Greg Nelson spoke this week on the bank’s upcoming project that will see its Umatilla branch become home to a large solar project. Being constructed in partnership with area firm Jack’s Solar, the project is expected to bring an estimated 160 panels to the roofs of the branch and result in a reduction of traditional electric usage of over 20%.
   The project, years in the discussion, is expected to begin next week. Over the following two months, contractors will spend weekends at the site installing a ballast system panel array that will produce an estimated 68 kilowatts of power each month. The work has been moved to the weekends to allow for the highest level of safety possible due to the need for high-lift equipment around the building. It was deemed best to not have customers in close vicinity to the work.
   "We've talked about this since 2009," said Greg Lewis, Senior Vice President at USB who has overseen the project. Lewis outlined a matrix that involves increased panel efficiencies, lowered costs, and a federal tax credit that has now made the project feasible.
   “It makes it work for us.”
   The bank will invest an estimated $195,000 in the project, and anticipates roughly a 12% return over the next eight years on that investment.
   "We needed it to make economic sense for our shareholders," Lewis said, while also allowing that the project serves a social goal for the bank, which wishes to be good stewards of the environment.