White River Junction Solar Farm:
Grant Family gets Award for Fastest Development of 2.2 MW Solar Project in Vermont – EVER!

There was a Grand Opening celebration for the White River Solar Project on Saturday November 10, 2012.  Bob Grant of CRL Solar LLC, the developer, was on hand at the site to talk about the development of the project.  CRL Solar was awarded a SPEED Standard Offer Contract on September 9, 2011.  Bob is an experienced real estate developer.  His first step was to identify a team of knowledgeable solar consultants; engineers, lawyers and bankers. With this team in place Bob was able to apply his experience as the Engineering/Procurement/Contractor entity. This approach resulted in very rapid and successful deployment of a relatively large solar energy infrastructure project. 

Bob pointed me to a viewing location at the lower end of the site.  The first thing you notice is the huge number of solar panels installed.  In fact, there 10296 panels rated at either 245 watts or 250 watts per panel. The panels are manufactured by Trina Solar.  

 

Panels

The racking system employed is a pretty straight-forward driven H pile-type rack.  The racking system was manufactured and installed by RBI Solar.  A big part of the project consisted of site preparation for the racks.  The site was extensively re-graded in 7 different “tables” to provide optimal conditions (N-S slope, E-W level) to maximize output and ease of rack installation.  Cassella Construction performed the site work.

 Racking

There are five inverters housed in a partially open steel building.  The inverters are manufactured by Solaron Advanced Energy and consist of 3-500 kW inverters and 2-333 kW inverters.  Adjacent to the inverter building is a 2,500 kVA transformer.  Approximately 2,100 feet of new 3-phase distribution line was required to interconnect the project with the existing 3-phase line on Route 5.  The interconnection work was performed by Green Mountain Power Company.

 

Inverters

 

Inverter Building with Solar Panels on Roof

After the site visit, the guests joined Bob, his wife Barbara and their family at the Quechee Inn for an evening of celebration.  The project was a family affair for the Grants.  Bob was the project manager, Barbara handled the finances, while their two sons and daughter made various contributions to the project either on-site or with web site development.

 

 Pam Allen, interconnection engineer extraordinaire from GMP, presented Bob with a GMP blanket that was embroidered with the saying “GMP, generating possibilities together”.

 

 I gave Bob the award for the “fastest development of a 2.2 MW Solar Project in Vermont - EVER”.

Others in attendance included Jeanne Blackmore, Matt Kerns and others from the Gravel and Shea legal team, solar expert Hilton Dier of Solar Gain, LLC., John Zigler of Mascoma Savings Bank, Gordon Stockwood,  G&B Electrical,  Ian Jewkes Krebs&Lansing.

 

The night ended with Bob and Barbara cutting the “Solar Cake”.  Nice job Grant family! 

SunGen starts Sharon on its way to becoming "Vermont's Solar Town"

The ribbon cutting ceremony for the most recent large solar project took place on Saturday, July 11, 2012.  The project is the Sungen1 Solar project in Sharon, Vermont.  The project was developed by Kale Inoue and his partner/father Naoto Inoue of Talmage Solar Engineering, LLC. based in Arundel, Maine.

Undulating Arrays.

The project is located at the Sharon Commerce Park.  The first thing I noticed about the project was that it was large and the arrays were constructed so as to follow the ground contours with no terracing or leveling.  The project consists of 9562, 230 watt UpSolar panels.  The sub-arrays consist of 3 rows of "portrait" oriented panels.  The portrait orientation coupled with relatively small panel size allows the sub-arrays to conform to the rolling terrain.  The panels are mounted on a foundation/rack system supplied by Terrafix.  The foundation consists of Terrafix's patented earth screw anchor system attached to prefabricated steel racks. 

Kale Inoue led several technical tours of the solar project.

Kale  knows the engineering details and explained a lot of the decisions on equipment.

Naoto Inoue admiring his "Solar Baby."

 Talmage put a lot of thought into the future operation and maintenance of the project.  The project uses 19 Solectria inverters. 

One of 19 Inverters.

The use of multiple smaller inverters, insures that  a single  inverter failure will not result in a catastrophic loss of production.  Additionlly, the Selectria inverters of this size are readily available and can be replaced in a relatively short timeframe as opposed to large utility-scale inverters which may take several months to replace.  The most innovative aspect of the project is the use of Tigo energy module maximizers on each panel.  The Tigo product ensures that each panel produces to its maximum regardless of shading, or soiling of other panels in the array.  For a system as large as SunGen's the most important feature of the Tigo modules may be the ability to individually monitor each panel.  Each Tigo module has a unique IP address and reports to a monitoring site on the internet.  This monitoring allows for maintenance (such as washing dust off the panels) to be done when it is actually needed.  Additionally with over 9500 panels, the Tigo system will alert the operators if an individual panel fails or begins to underperform.  It was announced on Saturday that UpSolar  and Tigo have just received permission to incorporate a Tigo module in the panel connector of UpSolar's panels,  thereby eliminating the need for seperate field wiring connections to the Tigo boxes.

 

The Tigo Maximizer boxes can be seen on the upper right of each panel.

Talmage treated everyone who had contributed to the project (primarily employees, suppliers and local neighbors and officials) to live music and excellent food.  There were a few speeches.  I was interested to hear Naoto Inoue speak of his 37 year background in renewable energy.  He started as an anti-nuclear activist.  The slogan at that time was "Go Solar, No Nukes".  The problem was that the idea of "Go Solar" was really not realistic in the 1960s because solar technology was not advanced enough.  Now 37 years later Naoto is a partner in one of the largest solar projects in New England.  It is also interesting that one of the most positive aspects of nuclear energy may be how many renewable energy entrepreneurs nuclear energy has inspired.

Representative Margaret Cheney and her husband Congressman Peter Welch stopped by to join in the festivites.  Margaret represents Sharon in the Vermont House of Representatives and is also the author of the original SPEED Standard Offer program.  In her speech Margaret said that after endless hours in a committee room talking about renewable projects it was particularly gratifying to see this  project completed in Sharon.  Congressman Welch added that while not much is getting done these days in Congress,"it is sure getting done in Vermont".

Representative Margaret Cheney, one of the strong supporters of renewables in the Vermont Legislature  with SPEED Facilitator.

3 Generations of the Inoue Family with the Talmage employees, equipment suppliers, bankers and supporters at the ribbon cutting.

Paul Haskell, until recently Chair of the Sharon Selectboard, spoke about the continuing local support for more solar projects in Sharon.  Rutland may eventually be the "solar city", but it would not suprise me if Sharon is the first "solar town". 

Newest Cow Power Project

 

You would have to look  hard to find a prettier setting than the high valley in Greensboro that is farmed by Sandy and Peter Gebbie.  The Gebbie Maplehurst Farm is the latest SPEED Standard Offer farm methane project to come on-line. 

 Maplehurst Farm

A digester project is a big undertaking for a farm the size of Maplehurst Farm (about 400 cows).  The Gebbies began planning the project in 2008.  They were one of the original applicants to the SPEED Standard Offer program in the fall of 2009.  Financing and permitting came next.  The CPG for the Maplehurst firm was OK'd in October of 2011 .  The digester was completed and filled with manure in the winter of 2011/2012.  The digester was designed by RCM and uses a flexible cover and a proprietary hydrogen sulfide control technology.  It wasn't until the spring of 2012 that the digester began producing useable quantities of methane gas.  The Gebbies got a little help from the Chaput farm in the form of some digester sludge to "seed" the new digester.  The engine/gen set was installed in the late spring.  Martin Machinery was on-site in July to setup the engine and do the commissioning.

 

 Sandy Gebbie walking on air (actually methane gas)

Engine/Genset by Martin Machinery

The view from the Gebbie's house goes on as far as the eye can see; past Jay Peak into Canada.  Before I even started my tour of the digester project I stood with Sandy Gebbie admiring the view. 

Sandy told me to look closely.  When I looked carefully I saw in the distance 7 towers for wind turbines under construction.  The Gebbies million dollar view includes the ridgeline of Lowell Mountain. I carefully asked Sandy "What do you think of that?"  She hesitated and then said "I love it".   As I kind of suspected I might hear from a Vermont farmer, Sandy explained that "she liked seeing the wind turbines because she admires self-sufficiency and a working landscape".

Wind Turbines being Erected on Lowell Mountain

 And speaking of self-sufficienitcy, I noticed a "quiver" of "fat boy" powder skis in their garage.  I asked Sandy if they were skiers.  She said, "Oh yes, we have our own ski area; Pete's Mountain".  The lift system consists of rope tows powered by two farm tractors.  Sandy said "We always have powder".  I'll be back for another site visit this winter!

 

SVEP Breaks Ground!!!!!!!!!!

The Southern Vermont Energy Park SPEED Standard Offer project has broken ground in Pownal, Vermont.  The project is being developed by Gestamp Solar North America.  We anticipate the 2.2 MW solar facility to come online this fall, just in time to meet the December Commissioning Milestone.

Japan Institutes a Feed-In-Tariff Program

Japan is positioning itself to overtake Germany as the leader in solar installed capacity world-wide.  It instituted a feed-in-tariff program in July, with rates in excess of $0.50 cents per kilowatt-hour for solar.

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