KINGSBURY SOLAR GETS COMMISSIONED

VEPP Inc. welcomes our most recent solar facility to come online: Kingsbury Solar, a 50 kW solar array sited in North Montpelier.  Kingsbury Solar was constructed on an unused parking area behind the powerhouse of the Kingsbury Hydroelectric facility.  The owners are pleased to be producing renewable energy from a piece of land that was not arable.  The system was built primarily from locally purchased materials.

The Kingsbury project is a ground mounted system comprised of 216 Evergreen 230 watt modules utilizing six 8,000 watt SMA Sunny Boy inverters mounted on a Sunny Boy Tower just north of the array.

Solar Gain designed and installed the array in order to fulfill the project's no-concrete permitting requirements.  The mounting and racking system is built of pressure-treated lumber, galvanized pipe and aluminum. 

The framing is supported on helical piers with integral screw threads that are driven five feet into the soil, thus eliminating the need for excavation and creating virtually no soil disturbance.  

RPC Power Biomass Project Comes Online

VEPP Inc. is pleased to announce the commissioning of the SPEED Standard Offer Program’s first biomass project.  The RPC Power project was developed by the Rutland Plywood Corporation and is sited at Rutland Plywood’s manufacturing facility in Rutland where they have been manufacturing specialty hardwood composites since 1957. 

Rutland Plywood has used process steam at its Rutland facility for years.  In 2011, Rutland Plywood undertook a number of repairs and upgrades to the boilers and steam management system at the Rutland facility.  As part of these upgrades, a steam turbine and generator were installed in the existing steam boiler system.   Fuel for the boilers is provided by wood waste from the manufacturing process.  

A steam turbine and induction generator designed to match the process steam load and produce about 300 kW of electricity were installed.  In addition to the electric output of the facility, the high pressure steam exits the turbine as low pressure steam and is used to heat various components of the manufacturing process such as vats, condensate tanks, etc.   The design thermal efficiency of the thermal output and the electrical output divided by the heat input of the wood fuel is calculated to be 53%.

RPC Power is one of two biomass facilities to qualify for the SPEED Standard Offer Program. 

Vermont Air National Guard's New Solar Facility

The VEPP Inc. Board of Directors was invited to tour the Vermont Air National Guard's new solar facility and new geothermal heated fire/rescue building at the Guard's Air base in Burlington, Vermont.  The tour took place last Wednesday prior to VEPP Inc.'s December quarterly Director's meeting.

 

Our tour was lead by Lt Col. Adam Rice.  Colonel Rice is in charge of the engineering group at the base.  Additionally, Colonel Morgan, Adam's boss, and Lieutenant Lehman, project engineer for the solar facility also accompanied us. 

 

The solar facility is 1.6 MW in size.  The funding for the project (brought to the base, courtesy of Senator Sanders) includes a R & D component.  As a result, while the majority of the project consists of ground mount fixed panel arrays, there are also roof mounted panels on two buildings and a number of mast mounted arrays utilizing All Earth Renewable's All Sun Trackers.  The project was completed in October.  Engineers at the base will evaluate the different solar technologies as they get more operational experience.  It is anticipated that the solar project will supply about 40% of the energy used on the base.

 

The military has to go through a rigorous federal environmental permit process.  Because the base is government property and because of the federal permitting requirement the project probably did not need a Certificate of Public Good from the State.  However, the project is a "net metered" project under a special carveout in the Vermont statutes, and therefore, the Guard agreed to get a CPG in order to qualify for "net metering."  John Beling, the Director of Public Advocacy for the Vermont Department of Public Service, worked on the CPG for the Department and was also present to tour the site with the VEPP Inc. Board of Directors.

 

The Guard provides all the fire/rescue equipment and responders, not only for the Air Base, but also for the entire Burlington Airport.  A project just being completed consists of doubling the size of the Guard's fire/rescue building.  The new building    (it’s a large building) will be heated and air conditioned using a closed loop geothermal heat pump system.  A glycol based fluid is vertically circulated in piping through 25 water wells each slightly less then 500 feet deep.  The water temperature in the wells all year is consistently about 58 degrees.  The military has goals for its facilities which include goals for energy use per square foot.  This new fire/rescue building is anticipated to be a "gold" certified LEED building.

 

The U.S military is the largest energy user in the world.  Our military has recognized the importance of reducing fossil fuel use and has established a goal of 25% renewable energy by 2025.  The renewable energy infrastructure projects built this year at the Vermont Air National Guard base are important in maintaining the base as a cutting edge facility and a viable part of the Chittenden County economy for the foreseeable future.  Our hats are off to the dedicated and competent men and women serving at the base.

 

 Posted by J. Spencer

Northshire Standard Offer Project Nearly Complete

We are excited to report that installation of the Northshire SPEED Standard Offer solar photovoltaic project is nearly complete.  All the modules have been installed and CVPS will be on site early next week to build the interconnection.  The goal is to have the project online before the end of the year, and it looks like Northshire will meet that goal.

The Northshire project is being developed by the Northshire Bookstore, our beloved independent and family-owned bookstore that has been enriching the local community in Manchester Center, Vermont since 1976.  The array is located on the roof of the Northshire Bookstore, but unfortunately, the modules are not readily visible from the street below.

 Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vermont

The Northshire project is a rack mounted ballasted 16 kW array comprised of 72 Canadian Solar CS6P 235 polycrystalline 235 watt modules.  It is a low-angle installation with PanelClaw mounting situating the modules at a 10 degree tilt angle in order to minimize wind load and the additional ballasting necessary to counterbalance that load, which could increase the weight of the system on the roof significantly.  The system utilizes two 7,000 watt SMA Sunny Boy string inverters, each of which is wired to three strings of a series of twelve modules. 

 Chad from ReKnew hard at work

John Spencer, Executive Director of VEPP Inc., and Zac from ReKnew hard at work

A "sub-array" on the top of the Northshire Bookstore with Mount Equinox in the background

The installation is being completed by ReKnew Energy Systems, which also did the Advance Transit SPEED Standard Offer Project in White River Junction, Vermont.  The first step in the installation process involved bringing in a Solar Pathfinder to assess shading patterns.  The Solar Pathfinder combines site specific shading data with global weather data to develop an analysis of the solar characteristics of the site.

WattMetrics from Bethel, Vermont will be placing an interactive public kiosk in the Northshire Bookstore with a display that cycles through several screens showing the current system output and various environmental equivalents.  A touchable menu will allow customers to interactively explore the various attributes of the solar array generating electricity on the roof above them.  The kiosk will provide a tangible representation for customers to see what the democratization of energy production looks like, and just maybe, they too will be inspired to pop a solar panel on their roof.

I cannot end this article without thanking Zac Kerin, the extremely knowledgeable Operations Manager for ReKnew who designed the Northshire system, for taking the time to show us the array (more than once) and for answering my 1,000 questions.  Thank you, Zac!

And of course, a plug for ReKnew Energy Systems, a family-owned Vermont company out of White River Junction.  ReKnew Energy Systems designs and installs solar hot water and solar electric systems throughout Vermont, New Hampshire, and Western Massachusetts.  They provide high quality systems for homeowners, businesses, non-profits, schools, and municipalities.  Please visit them at www.ReKnewEnergy.com.

 Module installation complete! Photo Credit: Zachary Kerin

Posted by C. Alderman

Congratulations to Thomas and Nancy Kane

Congratulations to Thomas and Nancy Kane

Last Friday I visited Tom and Nancy Kane at the Scenic River Farm in Enosburg.  On November 3rd their new methane digester project came on-line.  The project consists of a 800,000 gallon GDF digester producing methane to power a 225 KW Martin Machinery biogas engine/genset.

I met with Nancy first to go over paperwork and let her know the schedule for billing and payment.  I mentioned to Nancy that because they were one of the first “new” farms to get into the SPEED Standard Offer program they will be getting 16 cents/Kwh.  She responded immediately with "I'd prefer 17 cents ".  (Bill Rowell told me later that day that "for the record I'd prefer 17 cents also").

Ashley Kane then took me on a tour through the barns that ended at the new generator building.  Martin Machinery has again completed a first-class installation with all the machinery newly painted and all the piping painted and labeled.  Tom told me that he wanted to have plenty of room in his powerhouse, and in fact, the powerhouse is spacious.  Ashley told me her Dad had been pretty stressed this summer with all the construction.  Tom seemed relaxed last Friday.  He was probably satisfied to get the construction done and the first oil change accomplished, all before deer season.

 

Farmers, Tom Kane and daughter Ashley Kane,  in front of new Martin Machinery  Genset

Obviously, Ashley is the brains of the outfit and Tom is the pretty face.

  

Another view of the Genset

In addition to the waste heat from the engine/generator heating the digester, waste heat is also used to heat washdown water, reducing the fossil fuel use on the farm

 I went from the Kane's to the Gervais Farm in West Enosburg.  I met with Clement Gervais.  Clement is the "king" of single phase interconnections.  He has a Martin Machinery three phase engine/genset that has been modified to put out about 200 KW, single phase.  The system has been on-line with no problems since 2008.  Clement, with the help of his electrical engineer, Dan Crockett, is now planning a second engine/genset ( he is currently flaring excess gas) that will also use a single phase interconnection.  Luckily for Clement there are two single phase distribution circuits that go past the farm.  Both engine/gensets are in the SPEED Standard Offer program.

My last visit of the day was with Bill Rowell at the Green Mountain Dairy in Sheldon, Vermont.  Wow, what a farm.  No wonder Bill is Chairman of the National Dairy Producers Organization.  Bill has a 300 KW project that came into the SPEED Standard Offer program as an existing cow power project.  Bill is also planning a second engine/genset, but to his chagrin he did not get into the SPEED Standard Offer Program before the 50 MW cap had been reached.  Bill has a backup plan and is planning to go forward as a "net metered" project.  Maybe the Legislature will open up more space in the SPEED Standard Offer Program this winter.