Former Navy Seal's Tampa firm brings solar power to Manatee arts school

Sitting just off of U.S. 301 in Palmetto, the Manatee School for the Arts is a 26-year old institution that combines arts and academics.

Reading the charter school’s literature, you’ll run across statements about its “arts-infused approach reaching student’s individual needs” and how its “acknowledging and accommodating different learning styles and multiple intelligences.”

Among its core beliefs is a commitment to “using varied teaching and learning approaches to foster imagination, creativity and to develop needed life skills.”

But now the school, which shares a campus with ¡Hola! Elementary, is about to be known for something else.

The Manatee School for the Arts, whose students range from sixth through 12th grade on its 11-acre campus, is about to undergo a major transformation to solar power.

The project calls for the installation of an estimated 3,000 panels across seven school buildings that will produce enough energy to power 320 homes for a full year.

When complete, the approximately $4 million project is expected to cut the school’s utility costs by 90% and pay for itself in seven years. (According to the school’s 2024-2025 budget posted online, it will spend $270,000 this school year on utilities/electricity.)

Each solar panel is 84 inches by 51 inches, says Steve Rutherford, the owner of Tampa Bay Solar, the company tasked with the project. “They’re a pretty good size. To put it in perspective, think about when you walk in somebody's front door. You got 3,000 of them on a roof. That’s a whole lot of front doors.”

The project is expected to be one of the largest solar rooftop installations in Florida and the only one of its size at a school.

And Tampa Bay Solar almost missed out on the account.

Make it work

Rutherford, 58, says during the third quarter of last year the company’s sales staff was doing what it normally does: going out to businesses in the area looking to “start up a conversation about solar.”

“One of my guys called this particular business and they happened to say, ‘Well, we’re actually negotiating with another company. You guys are welcome to throw your name in the hat and see where it goes.’”

So, Tampa Bay Solar did.

Rutherford was confident from the start of the process that his company — with 34 employees and annual revenue of more than $10 million — would win the contract for the work.

He based that, in part, on its background in commercial solar installation. Founded in 2010, Tampa Bay Solar has worked on projects at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, at a senior living facility in Miami, for a defense contractor in Fort Walton Beach and at the Sarasota County Courthouse and Dunedin City Hall.

Once the school saw Tampa Bay Solar’s resume and its team, Rutherford says, it “quickly moved from looking at other bidders to just saying ‘How can we make this happen?’”

Charles Jones, the president of Renaissance Arts and Education, Manatee School of the Arts’ parent company, says it was little more complicated than that.

Though he agrees with the outcome.

“We asked ourselves, how do we sustain the longevity of our school for our community at large? How do we provide a safe environment for future generations?

“Solar is the obvious choice,” he says, “and after going through the RFP process, Tampa Bay Solar was the obvious installer of choice.”

In command

Rutherford is a 1990 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and spent 22 years as a Navy Seal. He worked on the operations side for seven years before transitioning into an administrative, non-combat role.

It was a natural move, he says. “As you get older, more mature in the Seal community you move from more of a ‘Go knock the door in’ to more of ‘How do you make a better weapon so that we don’t have to go knock a door in’ kind of thing.”

That transition included a return to school.

Photo by Mark Wemple

While in the Navy, Rutherford earned a master’s in physics from the Naval Postgraduate School. He put the degree — and his background — to work by focusing on improving weaponry used in the field. That included working with design engineers to make underwater batteries for use in Seal delivery vehicles.

After working on the battery project Rutherford “went back to war” commanding troops in Iraq for several years.

He later earned a master's in military national resource strategy and policy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. 

That piqued Rutherford’s interest in renewable energy. “In 2005, when I got that degree, utilities were using less than 1% of solar on the grid. It was more of a hobbyist thing than it was an actual market thing.”

With the degree, he was transferred to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa to serve out his final three years in the service, where he oversaw energy programs.

A part of his mission was to improve systems in Afghanistan where soldiers were facing grave dangers from improvised explosive devices. Working with another former Navy Seal, they were able to search out technologies “mature enough” to take out into the battlefield.

In 2010, they took solar battery backup systems into Kandahar, Afghanistan, installing them at 11 forward remote operating bases.

The idea for the project, Rutherford says, was to reduce the amount of fuel needed to operate on the bases “because all the guys were getting blown up driving fuel trucks back and forth to keep the generators running.”

“I did that for a year before I retired. After I finished that tour I got out of the military and I said, ‘Well, this might be a good time for solar to take off in the residential, commercial market.’

All hands

Rutherford, who retired as a Commander, started Tampa Bay Solar in 2010. Today, the company’s office is on Adamo Drive east of downtown Tampa. 

And while it has done big projects in the past, the Manatee School of the Arts job will be one of its largest.

Courtesy image

Tampa Bay Solar will oversee the design, engineering and installation of a system that will generate up to 2 megawatts of photovoltaic power output. This, the company says, is enough to offset the energy needs of the school for the next 25 years or more.

Rutherford says the equipment is on site and it has won approvals from Florida Power & Light, while permit applications have been submitted to the city of Palmetto.

If all goes as planned work will begin in mid- to late-April and be completed by the end of June.

As for the school, it describes itself as a “champion of innovation and sustainability” with green components in use across the campus. It has already been working to update its infrastructure, including its HVAC and roofing, to conserve energy.

“Going solar," says Jones, the Manatee School of the Arts’ founder, "is the next logical step,”