MARQUETTE — There’s a new array of solar panels in town.

The adjoining rooftops of Donckers and The Delft Bistro, located along West Washington Street, are now adorned with nearly 60 gleaming panels.

The recently installed panels help provide electricity for the operations of the two local businesses, powering items such as freezers that cool ice cream, stovetops that cook a variety of meals and a marquee that lights up Marquette’s downtown.

When viewing the solar panels on the rooftop, it’s easy to see why the location was chosen — on a recent crisp October morning, the array of panels glinted and glittered in the sunlight, high above the trees and shadows from surrounding buildings.

The panels gleam in the sunlight of a recent cool October morning. These are just a few of the nearly 60 panels that were recently installed. (Journal photo by Cecilia Brown)els on the rooftop of Donckers and the Delft Bistro gleam in the sunlight of a recent cool October morning. These are just a few of the nearly 60 panels that were recently installed on the rooftops of the businesses. (Journal photo by Cecilia Brown)

“It just made sense to do it,” said Donckers and Delft Bistro owner Tom Vear, as the rooftops are “very sun-friendly areas.”

These solar panels are projected to provide around 19,000-kilowatt hours annually, he said, which should cover 35 to 40 percent of the two businesses’ energy consumption.

This is important, Vear said, as he recognizes they’ve been consuming more with an increasing volume of business and have been working to offset fossil fuel consumption.

“We try to be as green and as efficient as we can,” Vear said.

The two businesses are directly using the energy generated by the solar panels, rather than selling the power back to the grid, Vear said, as he believes this is the most cost and energy efficient approach.

The panels were installed earlier this month by Peninsula Solar, a Marquette-based solar equipment company that worked with Vear to engineer the setup for the solar panel array on the roof, doing extensive research and planning to optimize the positioning of the panels.

The project had been on Vear’s mind for a while, he said, and when he connected with Ian Olmsted of Peninsula Solar, they worked to make the project a reality by applying for a grant, as Vear felt using solar energy was “just the right thing to do for our business and generally the world going forward.”

The application was successful, Vear said, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program awarding them just over $11,000 for the project in June.

“This grant will go far towards reducing energy consumption and utilization of fossil fuels, and actually helping us promote the downtown and our business in an ecological way,” Vear said after the grant was awarded, noting he was “proud and honored.”

This grant covered a portion of the project’s cost, which Vear said was around $60,000.

The initial cost, Vear said, is well worth it, as it helps to offset the businesses’ energy consumption, providing both ecological and financial benefits.

“I can actually take those savings and put it into my business and make it more enjoyable for people,” he said.

He encourages other businesses to consider the option and weigh the benefits, noting there are “roofs all around the downtown that are pretty good” for solar panels.

With the panels now up and running, Vear said he looks forward to the future, emphasizing the panels are just one aspect of larger sustainability efforts pursued by the businesses — activities such as recycling, using energy-efficient items such as LED bulbs, and buying products locally are examples of some of the other strategies the businesses use to keep things as green as possible.