Special Bd. of Aldermen — 08/06/2019 Page 16
Alderman O’Brien
And | left my PHD at home so you don’t have to get into the weeds. But it is a concern, New England like they
say, “wait a minute, the weather will change”. To that, do you also look at in a ballast type of system you look at
the insulation of the building that you put it on. | did have a failure of a structure because people at a later date
over-insulated. And when they over insulated then there was no wicking of the snow or no melting and it kept
the snow on until finally the roof caved in. So do you do the usual caveats with that and you look at each
engineering standards as is and not to any architectural changes?
Mr. Hasselbeck You got it, so that’s exactly why we do all of our own project specific, engineering review is part
of our due diligence just to make sure. Because that happens a lot especially with older buildings, is that things
get added. Oftentimes what we see is actually additional HVAC units either hung from rafters or put on top that
weren't included in the original designs. That’s why it is really important to us that we do our own due diligence
just before installation so we capture any changes or alterations to that building that happened post-construction
to make sure that what we are doing doesn’t compromise the structural integrity.
Mr. Weeks | would just add Alderman O’Brien as an interesting test case, a couple years ago Hurricane Sandy
was probably the biggest challenge to install solar. You had a substantial amount of solar penetration in New
Jersey and New York State. There were a number of roofs that came off, but no solar came off roofs. There
were some roofs with solar that were lifted, but | don’t think a single panel was loosed in that particular Super
Storm and we have so far had a clean track record here in Northern New England.
President Wilshire
| have a question about the end of life for these panels, what happens then?
Mr. Weeks Great question briefly and James feel free to add. So the power purchase agreement which we will
get into momentarily here, actually stipulates that if the City opts not to purchase the array, the panels, then the
full installation from the investor partner, it is the investor, the owner of the arrays responsibility to remove the
panels and to return the facility to its prior condition absent normal wear and tear. So that is not the City’s
responsibility unless you choose to own the array. To be honest, we have a so far small test case because the
commercial lifespan of solar equipment is 40 plus years. We have systems that are reaching 40 and slightly
beyond 40 years old in this country and they are still putting out about 80% of their initial Day 1 power. So as of
this point, there is not much a secondary market because there is not much to feed that market. We do certainly
anticipate that in the coming years and certainly decades that will emerge. The primary ingredients in solar
panels are reusable, valuable commodities; glass, silicon, aluminum. Just how they will be repurposed
presumably into new solar panels remains to be seen but that is certainly emerging.
Mr. Hasselbeck And | do think that a better case study is the European Market which is far more established
and mature than the US market and there is a little cottage industry focused on the purchase and recycling of
solar panels and associated equipment at the end of their lives. So again it is not poisonous chemicals, it is
glass, aluminum and inert silicon. So there will be a value and a market for it.
Alderman Lopez
So just two quick questions, the first one is we were talking about how much this would offset expenses in terms
of power use. Given that these are absorbing sunlight coming down on a roof, would there be a reduction in
cooling costs during particularly hot days?
