With a new rooftop solar array — the county’s largest in a public rental site — Live Oak Business Park tenants will contribute to a cleaner environment and enjoy lower utility bills, solar engineering experts say.

During its 30-year lifetime, the array of sun-capturing panels atop the Soquel Avenue facility will function as "the environmental equivalent of planting 12 acres of trees," said Roger DeNault, founder of Santa Cruz-based Solar Technologies, which helped design and coordinate the installation. The system will eliminate an estimated 2.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide pollution that would otherwise be released by a conventional power plant.

The solar array, which has been up and running for several weeks, is expected to supply at least 10 percent of the power used by the 118,000-square-foot business complex once it is fully occupied, DeNault said. He predicts the system will produce 50,000 kilowatt hours each year — the amount needed to power about 12 local homes.

Only one of Live Oak’s four buildings contains the solar panels, but all will reap the benefits.

"The savings that are generated from the system will eventually be shared equally among all of our tenants," said Libby Glass, development project manager of Barry Swenson Builder, which owns the business park.

The cost-splitting is possible because the 37.7-kilowatt photovoltaic array is connected to Live Oak’s utility grid. On sunny days, when the system pumps out more power than the offices need, the excess electricity is fed to the grid for utility-bill credit.

Hoping to attract environmentally-conscious tenants, Barry Swenson sank $330,000 into the solar project. But with tax credits and other financial incentives available through the California Public Utilities Commission, the solar generator should pay for itself in as few as five years, DeNault said.

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"I think it’s time to experiment and see what we can do and try to integrate some of these concepts into commercial buildings," said Jesse Nickell, Barry Swenson’s vice president. "This allows us to shoot toward more of a sustainable future."

Jewelry designer Vallora Sabourin of Flying Lizard Design, one of Live Oak’s tenants, couldn’t agree more.

"I have lived solar for 15 years and am so pleased to incorporate this practice into my business profile," she said.

Conventional glass-covered rooftop panels will generate most of Live Oak’s solar power. However, about 20 percent of the solar output is expected to come from an experimental product for flat, commercial roofs that is being jointly developed by Madera-based Central Coating Co. and Uni-Solar, an international manufacturer of thin-film solar products. This innovative product, ElectroRoof, combines roof-mounted photovoltaic cells with a protective insulation made of polyurethane foam.

The real success of the solar project will take years to establish. But in the meantime, a Santa Cruz consulting company, SolarQuest.com, is building a Web site for real-time monitoring of Live Oak’s solar center. Similar tools are in place to chart the performance of the 57.6-kilowatt system installed in May atop the West Marine boating supply store on 17th Avenue, several blocks from the Live Oak complex.

For instance, the SolarQuest site shows that on Dec. 3 the West Marine solar system generated 200 of the 380 kilowatt-hours of energy used by the 7,500-square-foot store.