Project recap: SolSolution's solar installation at Aruna's Place

At the completion of each project, we ask the project coordinator to complete a questionnaire detailing his or her experience planning, funding, and executing the green project.

 SolSolution's solar installation at Aruna's Place

Location: Sudbury, Mass. | Funded: Aug. 2, 2011 |  Completed: Dec. 5, 2011

Project coordinator: Samantha Go

The basics

Equipment installed: 3.9 kW photovoltaic solar system (and solar inverter in the basement)

Vendors: Alteris Renewables.  We purchased the solar panels from them, and we also commissioned them to complete the installation on the roof of Aruna’s Place.

Organization's role: SolSolution's volunteers and team members did everything involved in this project leading up to the actual installation.

SolSolution:

• Made site visits to the school from the very beginning of our relationship with Aruna’s Place more than a year ago.
• Performed a preliminary satellite assessment.
• Contacted the utility provider for Aruna’s Place to provide her with accurate cost savings calculations.
• Contacted Alteris Renewables as our installer for this project after researching other potential options.
• Gathered and organized all the right documentation to eventually sign a PPA.
• Organized one in-person dinner fundraiser.
• Broadcast this project to our broader network to collect the necessary funds.
• Worked with our partners -- such as NGE -- to collect the final funding and publicize our first solar school.
• Contacted the appropriate media and press.
• Worked closely with members of the Aruna’s Place and Sudbury community to organize a “plugging in” celebration.

How long did the project take to complete?

Planning phase: A year and a half, overlapping with fundraising phase. We consider everything before the final installation a part of our “planning phase”. From our preliminary assessment to signing the letter of intent took us about 2 months. After the letter of intent was signed, we commenced the design, engineering, and financing phase all simultaneously. That process -- in addition to negotiating the contract and collecting of the full $21,000 -- took us a little over a year.

Fundraising phase: About one year, overlapping with planning phase (see above)

Implementation phase: Two weeks. While it required only 2 days for installation of the solar panels, we also had to contact the utility provider to verify energy rebates, connect the panels to the grid, and other administrative requirements to bring the installation fully online. The implementation phase of our project also includes the continuing operations and maintenance of the installation that spans the lifetime of our 20-year PPA agreement with Aruna’s Place.

What were the biggest challeneges you encountered?

Planning phase: The biggest challenge we faced as a whole was simply going through the entire solar school project cycle for the first time. While we knew the major milestones required to complete the installation, there were many smaller steps along the way that we had not foreseen that required more research and preparation from the SolSolution team. 

Fundraising phase: Engaging our support base to collect the full $21,000 over the course of the year. Because we were only focusing on one installation for the full year, we were afraid to ask our same pool of supporters repeatedly for more funds for the same project. But with the variety of opportunities and ways to donate we were able to provide, I believe we overcame that fear and convinced a higher percentage of our supporters to donate to the Aruna’s Place installation. While the total project cost was fairly high, we wanted our donors to know that even $5 can get us to our ultimate goal, and I think we were mostly successful. In the future, we hope to connect with more members and constituents of the local community to support our solar school installations.

Implementation phase: The implementation phase for SolSolution is really the easy part of the process. All of the hard work has mostly already been done in preparing for the new solar installation beforehand. On the day that the solar panels were being installed, we mostly admired the handiwork of Alteris’s hardworking crew to mount and connect the panels.The only smaller challenges we ran into during this phase would be ensuring that the system was fully operational and connected to the grid with all the appropriate legal and financial structuring in place. After the panels were installed, we scrambled to make sure all the necessary parties were contacted and all the required documents were signed so that the solar system could begin generating electricity (and selling back to the grid when necessary) as soon as possible. Otherwise, the 20-year PPA should proceed smoothly from today forward.

Did the actual project implementation time differ from the estimated time?

The implementation time was exactly on schedule. Alteris told us about 2 to 3 days to install, and that is the time frame in which they finished the installation.

During the implementation phase, were there unforeseen expenses you experienced?

Again during the implementation phase, we had already gone through engineering and designing the solar system and assessing the status of the roof on Aruna’s Place was suitable for solar panels. Therefore, we did not run into any unforeseen expenses during installation.

If we look back to planning phase, though, the roof of the preschool had some very visible warping so Aruna had to repair her roof before the panels were installed. However, SolSolution does not cover any costs that are not directly associated with the solar panels themselves. Regardless, Ms. Aruna Pundit herself took care of this unforeseen expense before she agreed have the solar panels installed.

One unforeseen expense that we had not included in our initial cost calculations is the real-time monitoring and read-out system that displays how much electricity is being generated by the panels. We introduced a third-party unit to serve this purpose rather than using the standard readout provided by Alteris because it’s easier to read, more customizable, and the SolSolution team can access the data remotely. However, our team decided to absorb the cost of that unit and the installation and did not add that onto our project costs total for donors. (In the future, it will be included though.)

Do you have some feedback or information on the vendors, suppliers, or equipment that you worked with?

Alteris Renewables was a wonderful solar supplier to work with. Their team was very professional and efficient. Moreover, because this was our first installation, we had a few solar-related questions or issues that we could not address ourselves and, thus, depended on the expertise and guidance of the Alteris team to help answer our questions or help us find the best solution. They were always very understanding and responsive.

Now that the project is complete, would you recommend that others undertake a similar project?

We would certainly recommend other schools to go solar. That is a large part of our mission at SolSolution, even if the school does not decide to partner with us. Solar energy will be a key player in our energy security in the future, and having solar panels on a school’s roof inspires students to think up their own bright ideas.

Nonetheless, we would highly recommend that schools find a good partner who is experienced and dedicated to finding the best solar solution for you. There is a lot of work involved in working with the original utility to calculate cost and energy savings, finding the right solar installer, filing for tax rebates, engaging the community, etc. 

With this project, you feel that your organization achieved its goals to:

Improve the facilities? Yes, in both the short- and long-term, the cost savings generated from these solar panels will help provide more resources to Aruna’s students and keep Aruna’s Place running in tip-top shape.

Help the environment? Yes. While the size of this system is not as large of a project as we would typically like to be doing, the energy and CO₂ savings are still significant. 

Showcase its green mission? Yes. This was a great first solar school installation for us, and with more time, the accumulated cost and energy savings will continue to showcase that our solution really works.

Engage organization members? Yes. Everyone on our team and in our supporter base loves Aruna’s Place and is so excited that our first solar school installation is now completed. As our first solar school, we really had all hands on deck to make sure every step of the process was completed with the utmost efficiency and professionalism. 

Engage the local community? Moderate. We did a good job of engaging the Aruna’s Place community, including the students, teachers, and parents. But we can certainly improve our ability to connect with the broader community and get them excited about solar schools in their neighborhoods as well.

If you could do the project over again, what would you do differently to:

Simplify project implementation?  Streamlining is probably a better word. Simplifying the process would not really be possible, but with the experience we gained in completing our first school from start to finish, there are certain target areas of the planning and acquisition process that we can streamline by preparing one step ahead in our timeline, completing and submitting certain documents in advance, and understanding how to communicate best with installers and schools respectively to keep the process moving forward.

Save money? In streamlining our operations above, we will be able to cut down on a lot of travel costs in driving to and from the school to sign papers, gather information, or having meetings. While we will certainly still make the in-person trips to schools to build our relationship with them, there were a certain number of excess trips that could be removed by being more prepared in advance.  

Engage organization members? What we will need to work on most in the upcoming schools is clearly defining the roles and responsibilities in relation to school projects. With the first installation, our CEO Dr. Soren Harrison handled >80% of the contacting of the school, installers, and utility. Earlier in this process, we had a smaller team, which meant that Soren was the main person to take care of Aruna’s Place. But now with larger installations, more schools, and a bigger team, we will need to develop points of contacts for specific stages of the solar schools process. 

Engage the local community? This is one of the largest areas where we can improve. We planned to have a big community event featuring Aruna’s Place in Sudbury, but with short notice given before the actual installation, we were not left with enough time to talk with local science classes and clubs or local green businesses to invite them to the celebration. We learned, though, that as soon as we have the PPA signed, we should begin making preparations and contacting the broader local community.

What do you know now that you wish you'd known at the start of the project?

We wish we had known is the amount of time it took to process some of the documents we submitted to the state for rebates or other forms to get various parties’ approvals. While we should not have been very surprised at the required processing time, it did cause some lag in the planning and acquisition phase. While we certainly filled that time following new school leads, it did slow down the final steps of ultimately installing the solar panels on Aruna’s Place. We are now working to build this expected lag time into our solar schools schedule so that we can take advantage of those intermittent weeks to fulfill other requirements or complete other documentation in advance.

What did you enjoy most about the project?

Working with Aruna Pundit and establishing a friendship with her and her school was the most rewarding part of this entire process. Getting to know her, her school, and her students, we were able to understand what they really wanted to gain from this process of going solar so that at the end of the day, she was as excited as we were at having the solar panels on her roof.