Penick Village, an assisted living center in Southern Pines, North Carolina, with a commitment to green development has taken the next step in contributing to environmental sustainability by working with Skyline Innovations to provide residents with solar energy. The community’s latest expansion, the Garden Cottage, which houses living quarters for a number of residents as well as an on-site kitchen and a salon, has been outfitted with solar water heating, financed and managed by Skyline.

Penick Village CEO, Jeff Hutchins, has been highly involved in efforts to fulfill the community’s commitment to sustainability, pushing for the most recent expansions to meet LEED Silver standards. Hutchins worked with the local solar community and Skyline Innovations build the solar water heating system into the building during construction. The zero out-of-pocket financing provided by Skyline Innovations ensured that building costs remained within the community’s budgetary profile for the expansion.

The system consists of five SolarHot flat plate solar collectors, expected to provide about 200,000 gallons of hot water per year, or about 50% of the hot water for the living center.  Installation was carried out by Alternative Energy Concepts of Fayetteville, NC who collaborated with Bob Kingston of Re-align Technologies to provide engineering assistance as well.

Penick Village is making a concerted effort to reduce the living center’s carbon footprint, while simultaneously reducing costs – a win-win for everyone involved.