Flag City RV park goes green with new solar panels
Flag City RV Resort sits on West Banner Road in Lodi, near Interstate 5, with over 1,000 solar panels on the property that were recently installed to make the resort more environmentally friendly, according to co-owner Ricky Gill, whose family has owned the RV park for the past seven years
“We wanted to reduce our energy footprint, and very few resorts have gone solar to the extent that we have. We view this as an instance of us leading the way in terms of going green,” Gill said.
To help reduce the resort’s energy bill and protect the environment, Nuance Energy installed 1,518 solar panels on the 18-acre RV resort earlier this year to generate 530 kilowatts of energy per hour, according to Flag City Manager Bobette Dowling.
“The panels were installed over the summer, we went live on Sept. 1. It’s quite a big project. We have 180 sites on 18 acres, so our energy bill was quite high. This year is our busiest year to date, and last year was super busy as well. In order to absorb some of the cost and go green, we decided to look into solar power,” Dowling said.
Nuance Energy typically supplies solar panels for agricultural use, according to Dowling, and as a result was able to install standing panels around a storm drain that serves as the resort’s dog parks, with a chain-link fence surrounding the panels to prevent dogs or humans from interfering with them. Nuance also constructed a covered car port with solar panels on the roof and installed additional panels on the roofs of the main office and other buildings. The resort has also taken other steps toward becoming more environmentally friendly, such as using more recyclable beverage containers and sustainable landscaping, Dowling explained.
“Our goal is to make it a sustainable park. We’ve switched from plastic bottles to aluminum cans and Styrofoam cups to paper in our lobby. We’re just trying to be as green as possible. We also landscaped for the drought, trying to use rocks instead of grass,” Dowling said.
As well as helping reduce their energy bill, Dowling reported that the panels have also drawn people to the resort to inquire about installing solar panels for their own homes, farms and businesses.
“We’ve had a lot of people come in and ask the right questions to get into solar power, lots of farmers have asked for information about using solar panels for agriculture, so I think that’s beneficial for the Lodi community,” Dowling said.
Flag City is also considering adding more recycling bins, and dedicating areas of the resort to green waste and recycling in an effort to become even more environmentally friendly, Dowling said.