solar solutions for retail stores and showrooms

Want to increase your retail sales and boost employee performance and retention at the same time? Just add some sunshine! Learn how solar can fill your lighting or electricity needs. Even the smallest businesses can benefit from solar-powered savings!

Solar Lighting Solutions

Replacing or supplementing artificial lighting with solar daylighting devices can boost sales through an improved consumer experience. It can also cut energy costs and reduce absenteeism.

• Customer surveys routinely report that daylit stores appear bigger, cleaner, better organized, and more appealing. Those impressions add up to bigger sales as customers linger in sunlit aisles and showrooms.


• In 1999, a chain of 108 stores conducted a study where 2/3 of their stores were daylit and 1/3 were not. The daylit stores realized sales that were 40% higher.(4)


• In a similar study, a Wal-Mart store in Kansas used daylighting in one half of the store. Sales on the sunny side were significantly higher. As a test, products from the artificially lit side were swapped with those on the sunny side. Those products located under the natural lighting again had significantly higher sales, while those shifted to the artificially lit side returned to their national sales average.(5)


• You can dramatically increase product appeal with daylighting in your showrooms. Some products just seem to glow in the light of day…especially automobiles. In fact, most car pigments are designed to be seen in sunlight, so adding natural daylight to your showroom will literally put your merchandise “in its best light.”


• While natural daylighting is boosting sales, it’s also reducing overall energy costs for your company. Those savings can be significant when you consider that in a typical retail utilities budget, 55% of cost is spent just on lighting.


• Natural lighting can boost your bottom line in other ways, too.


• Productivity gains of 6 to 16% have been reported in naturally lit workplaces.


• Employees report greater well being and higher overall satisfaction when they don’t have to work under artificial lighting. That’s a boon for your employee retention rates, saving you training and other turnover costs.


• When natural light is introduced, absenteeism drops as much as 25%, according to one major study.(3) That’s because sunlight synchronizes our “body clock”, or circadian rhythms. This regulation reduces stresses on human health, leading to savings on health care. In fact, in a U.S. Department of Energy study, employees who sit near windows were reported to have 20% fewer symptoms common to workers in “sick buildings.”

Solar Electric (photovoltaic, or PV) Solutions for Retail
Other big utility expenses for retail locations are ventilation and cooling, which can consume over 35% of your utility budget. Solar electric (photovoltaic, or PV) panels can support your electrical needs at no cost whenever the sun is shining. Additionally, any excess power generated can be sold back to the utilities companies, offsetting your costs even more. If your retail location has a flat roof, think of it as a potential sun farm that can generate free power that you can use for your consumption–and that you can sell to others.

Solar Solutions for Businesses with a Small Footprint
Even a small business can make a big difference in the solar revolution! If your business takes up a sliver of Main Street instead of acres of land, you can still save on lighting and cooling costs. Solar daylighting fixtures not only cut your electricity bills. They also bring in natural light that can be the reason customers prefer your business to an artificially lit, sterile or “big box” environment. Beauty salons, clothing boutiques, gift shops, travel agencies, and more can cash in big on the warm, inviting atmosphere our solar lighting options create.

If your business uses air-conditioning in the warmer months, a solar-powered attic fan is a low-cost, maintenance free device you pay for once, then watch your cooling bills go down for life. One solar attic fan can cool up to 1200 square feet, so even the smallest commercial spaces can save big money on cooling bills–and do their part to reduce the community’s carbon footprint.

Call Solargreen today at 303.295.7652 or 970.493.8241 or email us to learn how we can help your retail business increase sales, reduce costs, and retain both employees and customers.

¹Pacific Gas & Electric Company (www.h-m-g.com)

²Wall Street Journal

³Pennsylvania Power & Light