Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 8/6/2019 - P18
Special Bd. of Aldermen — 08/06/2019 Page 18
Mr. Hasselbeck It depends on the project. So we can do either; in this case we have all examples. So all the
inverters are rated to be mounted externally, so if we need to put them outside, that is what they are designed
for. If in the top left, that’s the case where we had some spare space available in an electrical/mechanical room.
If that’s an option, we’d love to take that option. Another option on the top right, we mounted those inverters
right on the roof surface itself, so that’s another option. So if esthetics were a concer we could include.
Commissioner Garant
My concern is the array of conduit on that building surface which after you have designed the building to make it
look esthetically pleasing, particularly a Fire Station, then we end up with 20 rows of conduit. Is that always
necessary?
Mr. Hasselbeck Yeah it’s a great question. No it’s not, so first of all esthetics actually does play into our design
because we firmly believe that our solar adoption rate is 1% so there is a lot of opportunity there. These
municipal projects are so valuable because they are offering community residents first exposure to solar and if it
looks ugly that is not going to be a positive experience. And that doesn’t help anybody, right? In that specific
case, that’s actually in the City of Keene, that system is gigantic so it is a massive power plant. That specific
location is on the rear of the building sandwiched between the dumpsters and where they park the Zamboni. So
we do take that into account. | want to be clear, we are electricians not magicians and we do have to connect
our solar arrays to the inverters but | am not looking to put all that stuff rignt next to your front door, | guess.
Mr. Weeks And | am happy to advise on these specific properties because these are substantially smaller
arrays there is sufficient room. | think the plan, it hasn’t been all confirmed, we are still in that process working
with the managers of those facilities, but the plan is to locate those two or three inverters, not the 8 or 10 that
you see on larger arrays in those utility rooms and run interior conduit runs. That’s always our preference from
an esthetic standpoint and we should be able to do that in these cases.
Commissioner Garant
Thank you.
Mr. Weeks Thank you Commissioner.
Alderwoman Kelly
Thank you. We touched on maintenance of the panels. Is there any concern or issues that come up with the
roof maintenance once something is installed?
Mr. Hasselbeck Another great question that’s why we really feel strongly about due diligence prior to a solar
installation to essentially avoid major roof maintenance there. But in the case where this is say, what does
happen sometimes you know we saw the HVAC units up there. That is often, those heating and cooling units
typically do have penetrations, those are often the locations for roof leaks or areas of the roof that need
maintenance in the life cycle of a building. So our first approach is to avoid getting too close to those. But in the
event where you know we did need to move some panels, it is not a big deal to move a few solar panels. Itis a
big deal to remove all of them for a big re-roof. So a simple roof leak if that happened, you know, we are
moving only a handful of panels in that specific area so that’s very minimal exposure and very minimal cost.
