Go Fish Installs Solar Panels

Go Fish has always stood out as one of the quirkier-looking buildings in Rehoboth Beach with its Union Jack sign and English-style phone booth out front. The latest wrinkle not only makes the building stand out more – it also benefits the environment.

The restaurant, known for its fish and chips, is installing 83 solar panels on its roof. Flexera Solar Energy and Wind Power installed the custom-made structure, which will produce 17,430 watts of electricity in peak operating conditions.

Go Fish owner Alison Blyth said she has wanted to put solar panels on the roof since 2005, but the project did not get off the ground until last year. She said she was able to get funding for the $160,000 project via a green energy grant from the state and an investment tax credit grant from the federal government.

The panels are hitched on top of a superstructure, made of a fiber composite, which can withstand hurricane-force winds and is not subject to rust. The panels go all the way down the roof.

Flexera Vice President Ben Farr said the company ran into shade issues when the project first started, necessitating the need to build a solar pagoda to elevate the panels above the shade. Blyth said on top of everything else, after February’s snow, Go Fish also had to install a new roof at the same time as the panel system was going in.

The system produces direct current, which inverters then convert to alternating current electricity. In addition, the system is connected to Delmarva Power’s electrical grid. Blyth said when the facility is generating more power than it needs, the excess is sent back into the grid for the electric company to sell back to users. Farr said this enables the owner of the solar system to lower his electrical bill but to also get money, in the form of renewable energy credits, from selling renewable energy to the utility.

 Blyth said she thinks the system will have paid for itself in less than two years, with an estimated 65 percent savings on her electric bill. Go Fish has also entered into a partnership with Flexera to be a sales center for the energy company. Within the restaurant will be two televisions or “sunny portals” which can track the system’s energy production. Blyth said Go Fish would begin using its new solar power system within the next 30 days.

 She said the system has been inspected; all she is now waiting for is for Delmarva Power to give her the go-ahead to flip the switch. “It’s very, very exciting,” she said. Go Fish’s solar sales center can be reached at 302-228-8369 or 226-1044.