Local business goes solar

Palm Springs Motors wanted to shed some green light on alternative energy.

“We looked at a lot of projects to try and solar makes the most sense for us,” Palm Springs Motors president Scott Simmers said.

The dealership wanted to cut its power bill, too.

“We have a big operation and how could we get some expenses down, part of that was utility bills,” Simmers said.

La Salle Electric in Cathedral City came up with this bright idea.

“The project is a 655 kilowatt PV solar system, a traditional mounted solar system,” LaSalle Electric president Gary LaSalle said.

The system will generate more than one million kilowatt hours every year which will generate about 90% of the dealership’s energy needs. By choosing a local company to do the job, Palm Springs Motors kept the work right here in the Coachella Valley.

“We’ve added local jobs, quite a bit of jobs. The time frame was crunch time,” LaSalle said.

“It just goes hand in hand with the green footprint that Ford is doing. We have a number of new vehicles introduced this year. We have three vehicles on the market that get 100 miles to the gallon,” Simmers said.

The project should be operational by December 3st of this year.