Renewable Energy for Residential and Commercial
Wind and Solar systems are becoming more and more efficient and now compete head-to-head with fossil fuels on price. As the Solebury Environmental Advisory Council locates innovative new systems installed in Solebury, we will highlight them here.
Roof-Top Solar at Bucks County Audubon
In the first quarter of 2021, the Bucks County Audubon Society installed a solar energy system at their Honey Hollow Environmental Education Center in Solebury.
According to Stacy Carr-Poole (Bucks County Society’s Executive Director at the time): “We are a small organization looking for the most effective use of time and resources. For our 50th anniversary we decided the best thing – both for the birds and for our local community – was to go solar.”
To finance the project, the society received hundreds of donations in response to its “Capture the Sun” campaign.
The system details:
Owner: Bucks County Audubon Society
Installer: Exact Solar
Energy supplier: PECO
Installation details
- Roof mounted solar panels on 1930s era renovated barn
- Southwest facing
- Unobstructed by trees
- Power output: 27,590 KW
- 91 solar panels, divided into 3 strings of 39, 39, and 13
- 3 inverters, one for each string of panels
- Net metering
Installation experience
- Solebury Township permitting was straight-forward
- One week to install
- After completion of the solar installation, installation of Net Metering equipment (by the energy supplier) took an additional 2 months
Software
- “Solar Edge” (provided by Exact Solar)
- Software measures electricity generated over each 24 hour period
According to the system's SolarEdge software, as of August 11, 2022, the system has produced 72 megawatt-hours of electricity and has saved more than 51 metric tons of CO2, equivalent to planting 852 trees!
For additional information, contact BCAS Board member, Will Bock, wbock@live.com