From where Abel Zalcberg sits in his office at OFM headquarters in Holly Springs, North Carolina, he can’t see the 250-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system on the roof, but its ROI is a glaring factor in his bottom line. His company — an office and school furniture manufacturer, distributor, and wholesaler — will produce over 300,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year with the solar farm, and it won’t use a watt of it. It’s all sold to Progress Energy, a Raleigh-based power company. OFM’s 20 year contract with Progress guarantees 18 cents per kWh on energy generated from the panels. That means Zalcberg has a front row seat to the sustainable business show.

“That’s about $60,000,” Zalcberg chuckles, “just for being there.” Those panels weren’t cheap, though. In fact, the whole enterprise — cost and installation of 1,042 solar panels — will set the company back about $1.3 million. It’s the kind of money that makes small businesses sputter on their best green intentions.

Zalcberg says it’s a challenge many small businesses have in today’s economy where it’s difficult to stay alive, much less make such an investment. Even with facilities in Phoenix and Taiwan, the 30-person OFM is very much a family-owned small enterprise. But it was just a matter of getting educated. “If they really knew about tax credits and depreciation, if they could subsidize it, the return is tremendous. It is a business decision but also a commitment to be green,” says Zalcberg, who’d heard about solar farms from another local business as well as his bank.

OFM didn’t have to put their money on the table up front. “The banks loved this project, and they don’t love much these days,” Zalcberg says. When shopping for a loan, he had two financial institutions doing battle over who would offer OFM the money.