Summit Ridge Vitality (SRE), a business photo voltaic contractor from Arlington, Virginia, will quickly full development of a 17-MW group photo voltaic portfolio of seven tasks — a minimum of, they’re thought-about that by interconnection requirements — constructed throughout 4 completely different rooftops in Maryland.
The 4.8-MW photo voltaic mission constructed at LBA Logistics’ constructing on Quad Avenue. Summit Ridge Vitality
All 4 websites are business buildings owned by industrial actual property operator LBA Logistics. Working with Black Bear Vitality, an company that represents institutional property homeowners wishing to construct on-site renewables, LBA began the method of including photo voltaic PV to its buildings in 2019.
“It, candidly, took them a very long time to seek out an asset the place all of the items lined up,” mentioned Victoria Stulgis, SVP of consumer operations at Black Bear Vitality. “Every part from the roof age is smart, it’s in a superb photo voltaic market, there’s no [joint venture] companions or lenders that don’t need photo voltaic, they’re planning to carry the asset lengthy sufficient, they’ve roof rights. That’s one of many the reason why I’ve liked engaged on these Maryland photo voltaic tasks. It’s uncommon to have 4 belongings in a single market with one get together the place you may get to the dimensions of 17 MW.”
The tasks are cut up between the cities of Rosedale and Belcamp. The primary to be accomplished was a 4.8-MWDC array atop an industrial constructing on Quad Avenue in Rosedale, which had a ribbon-cutting ceremony again in August 2023. Then in Belcamp, there’s a 2.8-MWDC array on Mercedes Drive, and a pair of.3-MWDC and seven.55-MWDC tasks on neighboring buildings on Equipment Drive.
Whereas constructed as single models, two of those tasks technically have a number of interconnection factors. The 4.8-MW array on Quad Avenue and seven.55-MW mission on Equipment Drive have two and three interconnection factors, respectively. It is because Maryland’s Neighborhood Photo voltaic Pilot Program had a rule that group photo voltaic tasks couldn’t exceed 2 MWAC capability, so SRE labored round that by planning a number of interconnection factors at these websites.
Whereas ready in interconnection queues isn’t a fast course of, SRE finds engaged on industrial rooftops quicker than on the bottom, as a result of there are fewer regulatory processes to finish. The corporate has by no means labored on a single portfolio of tasks as giant as LBA’s, however at any given time, SRE is developing a number of business tasks. Nate Greenberg, VP of enterprise improvement at SRE, admits that it’s dearer to construct on roofs, however not needing to tug particular use permits, conduct wetland research or different testing discovered on ground-mount tasks makes up for it.
Brian Dunn, COO and board member of Summit Ridge Vitality, and Perry Schonfeld, principal and COO of LBA Realty, on the Quad Avenue mission ribbon slicing. Summit Ridge Vitality
The corporate makes use of a normal set of parts on every array, together with this group photo voltaic portfolio. SRE installs Qcells photo voltaic modules, SolarEdge inverters and one in all two units of racking relying on the type of roof, both PanelClaw or Opsun.
“I feel that’s the largest factor I’ve discovered within the final 5 or 6 years of doing this. The precise development on the roof is the simplest half,” Greenberg mentioned. “It’s the coordination on the bottom that a whole lot of builders don’t actually take into consideration till they get into it.”
The Quad Avenue and second Equipment Drive tasks have tenants which can be lively retail suppliers, with product shipments transferring out and in of the buildings continuously. The arrays have been being constructed by way of the vacation season, and SRE needed to coordinate its personal deliveries whereas truckloads of liquor, wine and cosmetics have been incessantly delivery out from warehouses under.
Untapped group photo voltaic potential on industrial properties
In 2022, world funding agency Morgan Stanley revealed a report on the advantages of putting in photo voltaic on industrial properties titled “Buildings & Parking Heaps: Prepared for a Recharge?” The report claims that business properties in the USA alone have the potential to host 328-GWDC of photo voltaic.
However this section of the market continues to be in its early days, Stulgis mentioned. Black Bear Vitality maintains leaderboards rating actual property traders primarily based on how a lot on-site photo voltaic they’ve put in. As soon as LBA’s 17-MW portfolio of tasks is totally energized, the corporate will rank among the many Prime 20 corporations on that listing.
Credit score: Summit Ridge Vitality
There are frequent roadblocks to growing photo voltaic on industrial roofs, like roof rights and the phrases of tenant leases, however Stulgis mentioned group photo voltaic is a method for property homeowners like LBA to scale photo voltaic progress. A group photo voltaic array on a business roof sells vitality again to the utility and other people subscribed to the mission, and never on to tenants.
“Sometimes, by the character of being on an industrial roof, the photo voltaic is definitely getting delivered in areas the place there’s a bigger electrical energy demand and there’s a significantly better worth to the shopper of a utility if photo voltaic tasks are being generated near load vs. in the midst of nowhere and having to pay to move that electrical energy and having losses over the road,” Stulgis mentioned.
Greenberg mentioned that regardless of being an underserved market, group photo voltaic has unlocked business rooftop tasks. He expects this section of group photo voltaic to proceed rising the place these tasks could be constructed. And after 5 years of improvement, LBA’s group photo voltaic portfolio of 4 photo voltaic websites composed of seven completely different tasks will quickly produce energy and add to that progress.
“The cool factor about these rooftop tasks is you’re constructing them in communities that we’re serving. You go searching and also you see there’s not solely different buildings, however homes and companies and eating places,” Greenberg mentioned. “It’s up on an present roof, and we’re in a position to profit the folks of that group economically and environmentally. It goes again to why we began Summit Ridge Vitality.”
