As we’ve noted in previous blog posts, a growing number of U.S. colleges and universities are going solar. Inovateus has experience working with facility managers installing solar at higher education institutions—including the current 13 MWDC carport project at Michigan State University (MSU)—so we wanted to share some general information about the process and what to expect when your university solar construction is underway.
Set up a communications channel with the solar project manager
Once the design is completed and before the hardhats and construction equip
ment descend on campus, it’s very important for a designated university facility manager and the solar project management team to create and maintain a regular communication channel. The lead solar firm will likely have one or a few managers who will be the “face” of the project and become your main point of contact for all things pertaining to the job, so there’s no need for facility managers to get involved with the subcontractors or component suppliers. We recommend that weekly meetings be held where construction progress reports and other pertinent project updates can be discussed.
Minimize construction disruption during the school year
Since university solar system configurations come in three flavors—ground mount, rooftop or parking canopy—the project managers should clearly spell out the phasing and logistical concerns for the particular type of solar array to be built. Construction on a rooftop system may have to be scheduled around the use of the structure as a classroom, laboratory or administrative facility. Similarly, the building of a parking canopy system will need to be timed to have a minimal impact on parking space availability and traffic flow.
While it would be least disruptive to construct the solar project during the less-busy summer sessions or vacation periods, large solar projects can take many months to construct and could overlap with the regular school year.
As much as possible, the solar installer will work with the university to be the least disruptive. For example, we’ve had to keep to a pretty tight schedule during the construction of the MSU canopies to take advantage of the relatively small amount of activities—and small number of people—on campus during the late spring/summer hiatus between the school years. Parking becomes a critical issue once the students return to campus—and will become even more of a concern on gameday Saturdays during football season. That’s one reason why we’re building the projects at full throttle in sequenced phases during the summer break, to have a minimal impact on parking availability and traffic congestion.
Noise and other factors
As far as the actual construction, facility managers should expect the first phase of the work to be the heaviest and most labor-intensive—and noisiest. The solar modules, racking and mounting gear, and electrical components such as the inverters, combiner boxes, and miles of wire required will be coming in by the truckload. Simultaneously with the arrival of the materials, the construction team will be busy setting the pilings or roof mounts, building the structures, racking and connecting the modules, and wiring up the electrical system.
Once the mechanical part of the installation is completed, the rest of the process become much less hectic—and quieter. Site testing, inspection, commissioning and interconnection all take place with a relatively small impact, freeing the worksite to be used for its primary purpose, such as a parking lot or classroom building.
As far as the commissioning and interconnection are concerned, some universities like MSU essentially operate their own power grids, independent of the local utility, which will simplify the process. However, universities tied to the local grid will need to stay in close communication with their utility to ensure timely inspection and interconnection.
Once installation is complete
Once the on-campus solar systems are plugged in and providing clean power to the university, then what? Facilities managers are not usually responsible for the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the solar power plant, but they do need to stay in regular contact with the company that is in charge. The O&M costs are typically included in the terms of a solar PPA, so any maintenance services are taken care of by the site owner, EPC firm or a third-party specialist.
The good news is that any further campus disruption will be minimal. A well-designed, professionally built solar system made with quality components requires little O&M but regularly scheduled maintenance and as-needed troubleshooting of component failures or other TLC are included in the purview of the asset management team.
If your college or university is thinking about going solar and would like more information on what’s involved, we’d love to hear from you, so feel free to contact us.
By Jordan Richardson, project coordinator, Inovateus Solar
